Eggman Empire of Equestria
by FerrumFlos1st
Summary: Eggman has grown tired of losing to Sonic and his friends. To plan for world domination on Earth, Eggman will have to be far away from his enemies' reach and foreknowledge. This unknown world of Equestria is a perfect place to conduct his diabolic schemes. At the same time, he will have to contend with the native population and their ruling monarchies.
1. Prologue: The Story Begins

**This is my first fanfic writing, so please do provide constructive criticisms rather than the common, destructive ones I usually get in person for just about everything I think, do, and say.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire. I will be saying this throughout the duration of the story before the copyrights below.**

 **Sonic the Hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA. Created by Yuji Naka**  
 **My Little Pony characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro. Created by Lauren Faust for television.**

* * *

 _The Story Begins_

Sometime over 50 years ago.

 _"Maria, where will you be going?" asked the little boy to a girl named Maria._

" _I'm sorry Ivo. I'm not very well." said Maria. "I'm going to be away soon."_

 _"But how come?" asked Ivo. "Why won't you stay here?" The last question got into Maria deeply. She really didn't know what to say to him. He was young and innocent, yet intelligent enough to ask hard questions. She hugged him._

 _"Don't worry little Ivo. I will be back here as soon as possible."_

 _"Really? You will?" Maria nodded and the child gleefully hugged back._

 _"But promise me this." she said in a stern tone while giving him a pinky promise. "Promise me that by the time I get back, you will be a scientist like grandfather who would do what's best for everyone."_

 _"Yes, Maria. By my grandfather's name, I promise I will one day be a great scientist."_

 _"Thank you, Ivo."_

* * *

The Pegasi working night shift are scheduled with a task of bringing in a stormy weather over Ponyville. The citizens of Ponyville are very well asleep in their beds, so there was no complaint and conflict over the night clouds. All the buildings have their lights turned off. Only six remained lighted.

"Now now there, little ones. There's no need to be afraid. Fluttershy will be here," said she tending to her little animals in her cottage. Fluttershy then sighs to herself, "If only Rainbow Dash would be the one to remind me of the stormy weather." She wouldn't take the message from any other pegasus other than her friend, Rainbow Dash, who works as a weather patrol and now a Wonderbolts trainee; for anyone else other than her friends, she would lock the door and not let anyone in. Stormy clouds and lightning strikes bother her, but she couldn't leave the animals in fear of them. At the last, she gave a squirrel a home, done with her task of sheltering her animals, and finally ready to get some rest. However, a carrot was thrown at her face.

"Oh dear, how could I forget about you, Angel." said Fluttershy to her pet rabbit. Angel Bunny, grumpy and cross-armed, is tapping its foot impatiently on its basket bed for something.

"You want me to sing a good night lullaby, don't you?" said the kind pegasus. The rabbit nodded happily in reply. "Very well," she takes a deep breath.

As Fluttershy was taking a deep breath to bring out her singing voice, suddenly a green flash lighted from the outside. She look out the window and find it unusual for a lightning to be green. Following along was a huge rumbling sound. It didn't look like an earthquake as the ground didn't shake and there were no thunderstorms going on about, but it disturbed many of the animals from their shelter. The unnatural rumblings made them scurry around the floor and on the walls of the cottage.

"Oh my. What kind of weather are they making up there?" Fluttershy wondered. She took a peep outside from her door and gives a quick "yeep!" before rushing to close the entry. "Everyone! Under the bed!" were her orders. All the animals rushed in upstairs while Fluttershy locked all the doors, closed all the curtains, turned off all of the lights, and flew in under her bed with the rest of the animals. Shivering and panicking throughout the night.

* * *

"And they lived," Applejack yawns. "Happily ever after," she continued.

"But happens after the story!" cried Apple bloom.

"I'd tell ya. But right now your big sis needs her rest." She drops the book on the nearby drawer.

"Oh alright." groaned Apple bloom.

"Goodnight Apple bloom."

"Goodnight Applejack."

Applejack closes the door and is off to her room.

"Phewwee, I'm tired. All I need right now is a good night sleep like Big Mac and Granny Smith are having." She reached into her room, and just when she hop into her bed, a green light flashed from outside her window. "What in tarnation?!" she shouts.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

"Oh no, Winona." cried Applejack as she rush to downstairs and outside for the family pet dog in the barn. She was barking wildly at something in the sky. "Easy there little girl. It's just stormy out there. Maybe it's time you ought to sleep in the house." Without looking what's happening in the sky, she picks up the family dog back to her house when suddenly her named was called out.

"Applejack!" cried Apple bloom.

"What's going on right now? It was just a flash of lightning." wondered Applejack after dropping Winona restlessly onto the ground. While she was running back to her sister's room, the orange-coated mare was pondering about that green flash and that there weren't any raindrops falling when she left for the barn to pick up her dog. Without any pause, she rush through the door thinking that the green flash has done something to her little sister to make her scream as it made Winona wild. When she arrived at her sister's room, she saw that Apple Bloom was okay but looking through the window with a scared look on her face.

"What is that thing?" she points her hoof to the window. Applejack looked and saw something she never before seen in her life.

* * *

In the Carousel Boutique, Rarity is working overtime at night with her sewing machine to fill in an order, a dress required with a delicate, silver silk. The storm is only one of the many things that are bothering her right now.

"Can I do anything to help?" was cried.

"No, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity hissed, remembering the last time her sister helped. Returning to her casual composure and work, "Big sister is very busy right now and can take care of herself. Why don't you play with Opal? She seems very bored, all alone by herself." The white cat, Opalescence, across from where Rarity is working, was doing fine and sleeping soundly in her basket.

"Ugh, fine," Sweetie Belle growls. She walks towards Opalescence trying to pet the white cat. The cat however, scratches back when a hoof was going near her. An "ow" was cried, and Rarity's pet cat sits back in her basket sleeping calmly. "I can't do anything here," Sweetie Belle complained. She thought about what she can do for the night, but gave up. "I may as well go to bed." She steps into the hallways, walks towards her room, and within a few inches of opening her door, a "Sweetie Belle!", a cat screech, and a metallic object with a sewing sound felling off a table were heard. The little, unicorn filly rush towards where Rarity had been working. "Why? What's wrong?" she yelled.

"What did you do?!" the fashionista unicorn screamed at her sister. Opal was seen scratching Rarity's face wildly while the sewing machine she was working was on the floor ruining the silver silk design.

"But I didn't do anything!" Sweetie Belle cried out in defense. Rarity manages to get Opal out of her face with scratch marks and looked intimidating with it.

"Then explain me this," she paused to point her hoof outside the window. "What was that green light…and that rumbling sound…going on…" She looks to the window, "…about…"

* * *

The Baby Cakes were crying because of the stormy weather. Majority of the time spent for Pinkie Pie was playing games with them and it seemed to be doing fine. As bedtime approaches and with no games to cheer them up, however, they begin to cry. Pinkie closed all the curtains to reassure them, but they were still crying.

"There, there little ones," she said empathically while hugging them close, "Pinkie will be here for you." They calmed down a little and Pinkie set them down to their beds. "Hey, I know what would make you guys feel better!" She rushed out and somehow got back quickly in a second.

"Here's…Gummy!" brings out her teethless, pet alligator wearing pajamas. She sets him down with the Cakes, and the Cakes were relaxed to sleep as well as the pet reptile. Relieved and accomplished, Pinkie went out to the door and was on her way to her room. She faintly sees the green light from outside, which she dismisses as nothing unusual. Then the rumbling sound approaches. The ground wasn't shaking and lightning wasn't striking either, but the babies are crying! "What was going on," isn't on Pinkie's mind right now. She had to be there for the Cakes and ran back to where she started.

"Everything's going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine," she repeats to herself. Her mane begins to go from puffy to flattened and was about to lose control and despair, had Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake not have been there. Gummy was expressionless as usual, but he's most likely grouchy from suddenly awakening. This was shown through his constant gumming on Pinkie's head.

"What kind of weather that makes this rumbling sound without any thunderstorms?" she asked herself. She picks up the little Cakes, hugs and carries them while opening the curtains to see what's happening. She usually gasps when something new comes around, but this time she was shocked. What she saw is the biggest surprise to her.

* * *

 _Automatons_. That was the topic Twilight Sparkle had been thinking for a while. She's been doing research about them and is surrounded by books that made references. "They are machined beings without a life, yet still able to perform functions that a biological, living being could do. It can be in various sizes, biped, quadruped, winged or on wheels depending on the maker's ideas and designs. In contemporary times, they're able to come alive with magic, but the one performing the magic has to be there to keep it running or have enough energy to keep it steady. Scientists have tried to find alternatives to magic such as running on water or air, but none has availed or lasted long. There are theories that they can be granted souls hoping they would run on their own without the need to supply them with energy, but it has been proven to be dangerous and unethical that such a project had to come to a close. Is it possible for an automaton, once given a function and purpose, develop souls of their own?" Twilight asks herself as she summarizes what she researched. "If so, once they have souls, can they be considered a living being?" She looks around and sees that she's asking no one in particular. Spike is asleep and Owloysius, a nocturnal pet, is awake.

"Who?" was the owl's only reply.

"Hmm, maybe I should ask the princesses about this subject, but for now…" Twilight yawns, "I need some shut eye." She puts down her studies on the table and walked back upstairs when the green light from outside sparked. Curiously she looks from window to window, telescope to telescope as she ran to see what was happening. All her running began to bother Spike, waking him up in the process.

"Twilight, what's going on? Isn't it bedtime already?" inquired the dragon. When Spike asks, Twilight ran downstairs from the balcony.

"No time to explain," said she. "I need you to take a letter."

"Already?"

"This is an emergency. Something has happened in the sky." She looked closely at one of the telescopes. "Oh no."

"What's wrong?"

"We have to go. Now!"

* * *

Scootaloo was content. She gets to have a sleepover with her idol and sisterly figure, Rainbow Dash. By the time they got to the Cloudominium, Rainbow's house, Scootaloo was already tired and Dash had to carry her over her shoulder.

"The excitement must have gotten too much in her head," thought the cyan-coated mare. "I can't say I blame her. Even I would pass out the moment I get a chance to sleep over with an idol." She looked over her shoulder and she could see that Scootaloo was happy in her sleep. "Hey Squirt," she said out loud. "How about sleeping next to me for the night?"

"That…would…be…so awesome…" said Scootaloo in her sleep.

"Alright, you've got it," said Rainbow Dash as they reached the bedroom. She could see that her pet tortoise, Tank, is also asleep. "Guess everyone needs to sleep at this time, but not me." She said with enthusiasm. "I still have enough energy for some Daring Doo." She has a whole set next to her bed. Rainbow sets down Scootaloo next to her as she picks up a book. Before she could look at the title of the series however, the green light that everypony awake saw diverted her attention.

"What the hay!" she cried out loud. Scootaloo slightly awoke from Rainbow's sudden outburst but shrugged it off as nothing and went back to sleep. Rainbow flew outside to check out what's going on. "What was that green light?" she asked herself and she could see it before her eyes. A gigantic, red, winged, armored ship flying through the night sky with a thunderous sound, and its heading straight towards her house!

"Oh no. Scootaloo! Tank!" she cried rushing back into her house. She picks up Tank, awakening him, and Scootaloo, also waking her up in surprise.

"Why? What's going on? What's happening?" were questions asked by the surprised filly to Rainbow.

"No time to talk. We need to get out, now!" is her response. She carries both Scootaloo and Tank out through the window since the front door wasn't within reach in time. As they rushed outside, Rainbow could see from behind that her house, an upper portion of it, is getting torn off as the ship went through it. It may not have destroyed her entire house from afloat, but it was enough to make the rainbow-mane pegasus mad.

"Hey! You're gonna pay for that!" she yelled and chased the red airship while letting go of Tank and Scootaloo; a mistake to do for the latter.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo screamed, falling towards the ground. Only Tank was able to keep afloat with his helicopter installation.

"Oh shoot." Rainbow stopped her pursuit of the airship that was hovering over the Everfree Forest and turned back to return as quickly as possible to save Scootaloo. She eventually did, however with a thought in mind, "Whoever didn't taught her how to fly is a terrible parent. One day, I'll have to teach that filly." She carried Scootaloo with Tank following along back to the ruined house. Thankfully, it's still standing afloat. Only the bedroom and several pillars were damaged.

"What are you going to do now?" Scootaloo asks. She looks up to her sisterly figure. "Rainbow Dash?"

"I…I...I can fix it! No sweat. By the next morning, you will see that it'll be as good as new." She said in optimism to temporarily overcome her insecurity.

"Nice! That's the Rainbow Dash I know," encouraged the fan. "But if you excuse me," she yawned, tidying her blankets on an undamaged, nearby sofa for a deep sleep for the night. Tank flew towards a counter to sleep on.

"This could take me days." The saddened pegasus starts off by cleaning what was left of her room. She starts off by organizing her Daring Doo books and shelves. While going through the pile, she could distinctively see a blonde mane sticking out with the head stuck in one of the shelves.

"Derpy?" Pushing away piles of rubble and a mess of books, she manages to pull her cross-eyed friend out of the shelf. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know what went wrong," was Derpy's answer. Knowing Derpy, she's alright. Close by, both Rainbow and Derpy could hear wings flapping. The pegasi that were working nightshift have arrived. One of them, a head manager, stepped forward.

"Is she gonna be alright?" asked the manager.

"Well…" before Rainbow could answer.

"I'm okay." Derpy said with a slight smile.

"That's good to hear. Hey Rainbow, I'm sorry about your house."

"Eh, it's no biggy." Rainbow was finished organizing her books in one shelf. Afterwards she picks up some clouds to repair her home. "Although I wouldn't mind if I could get some help here."

"Sure. Anything for a friend."

"Thanks."

"Can I help too?" asked Derpy.

"No!" Rainbow hastily responded. She then softens her tone on what to say next. "Maybe you'll help out if you just stay still and sit."

"Okay." The cross-eyed mare flew over and sat on a chair. Little did anyone know, the chair was damaged by the crash. By the time Rainbow realized it, it was too late; the chair crumbled into pieces right when it was sat upon.

"Oops."

"Uggh." Rainbow grumbled and facehoofed. "Maybe it's best if you just lay on this pile of rubble before we clean it off," said Rainbow, laying Derpy on a pile of clouds, books, and other stuff that was damaged. "At least she wouldn't break anything of value or something that's already a mess," she thought to herself and sighed. "What am I am going to do with you, Derpy? Wait. What were you doing around my house earlier?" She then asks this question outloud.

"Well..." Derpy's answer was cut short when somepony on the ground called out.

"Rainbow Dash!"

"Twilight?" Rainbow heads down on the ground with Derpy following along. They could see that Twilight is in her raincoat and Spike holding an umbrella, even though the pegasi have stopped the rain in order fix Rainbow's house.

"Are you okay?" inquired the lavender coated unicorn.

"Yeah, I'm alright."

"Thank goodness."

"I am a bit upset though."

"About your house? I'm sorry."

"No. Not just house. It's that airship!" Rainbow said angrily. She then crossed her arms. "They have some nerve trashing the place. My place!"

"The airship? Where was it headed?"

"Well, I was gonna give it a piece of my mind, but that creep got away over the Everfree Forest."

"I see." Twilight turns to her assistant who was taking notes for a letter to Princess Celestia. "Spike did you get all that?"

"Yep, all set." He takes a breath.

"Wait. Before you send the message, we also need to know what happened like how it appeared. Did you see it Rainbow?"

"Well yeah."

"Did you see where it came from?" Twilight clairfied.

"Well not really. I mean there was this green flash of light from the outside," answered Rainbow. "That's all I know other than the fact that it crashed through my house."

"I did." Derpy stepped in.

"You did?!" shocked pegasus, unicorn, and baby dragon.

"Yeah."

The three then gathered around to hear Derpy's side of the story.

* * *

 **It seems that Shadow isn't the only one who made a promise to Maria. Eggman's age is unknown in the games, so let's just say he's over 50 to know his cousin. If the official states that he's younger, then let's just say this fanfic was made before the age was established.**

 **I try my best to make sure My Little Pony characters are in character. I wonder myself who would do this in a situation like this. Hopefully I got it right.**

 **Twilight could probably make a better research paper than I ever could (I could never get a straight A from one, ever), so what she researched were summarized along with her own questions.**

 **Rainbow's house is called the Cloudominium if you played the MLP app on the iOS.**

 **A giant, red, metallic, winged ship. Where and how did it came to be in the world of Equestria? Stay tune.**


	2. Chapter 1: Trouble in the Night Sky

**If you guys asked, this is set somewhere around Season 3 in the MLP side.**

* * *

 _Trouble in the Night Sky_

The pegasi are in shock. They don't know what to do. The first thing in their minds before was business as usual: pounding clouds to make rain and stormy weathers. Then all of a sudden a green light appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the night sky over Ponyville. The Pegasi could do nothing but cover their eyes from the impending flash. By the time they opened their eyes, fear has gripped their minds. A red, winged, colossal structure has made its approach over the clouds.

"Move out of the way!" teams of pegasi would shout. It was the only thing they could say and do. That thing had an impeccable size and it's already piercing through the clouds. When it did, everypony down below can see clearly with Luna's moon shining as bright as Celestia's sun. The object was only seen by the Mane Six, their pets, and CMC as they were the only ones awake down below. The rest of Ponyville were either downright asleep or had trouble sleeping by the thundering approach of the structure and shrugged it off as some lightning storm; save for one certain magician who rented a room in a hotel.

"Will you guys keep it down up there?! Trixie here is trying to get her beauty sleep!" She was wearing her sleeping goggles, so she didn't bother to look at what's happening outside while yelling out the window.

Anywho...Each of the Mane Six had different interpretations on the object. Some weren't sure what to make of it. Is it a creature? Or is it an object? Fluttershy assumed by its large size, red exterior, wings, and roaring sounds that it's a dragon. One peek on the outside was enough to frighten her. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie weren't sure what it was. From a distance, the object can look like a dragon in Fluttershy's perspective, but they could see that it is something else. Wings weren't flapping and fire isn't coming from its mouth as a dragon would but instead it's coming out of its… as Rarity would put it for the sake of appropriateness…out of its rump. Twilight from observing through her telescopes and Rainbow from her firsthand experience and delayed pursuit knew it was an airship. To Rainbow, it was strange. Most airships in Equestria usually require hot air balloons to stay afloat, but the one they saw had none. Instead it had a metallic exterior. How in Equestria can that thing fly while heavily armored? Maybe it's not from Equestria. Twilight and Rainbow listen attentively to Derpy's story while Spike is ready to write down all that's covered.

"I was doing messaging work at the time, "Derpy telling her side of the story. "With the demand to bring weather on Ponyville, I was needed to bring messages to the night shift workers. It was really rough. Making sure I'm not getting in the way of their work and not bumping into any of their clouds."

"So how did you know where it came from?" asked Rainbow.

"Umm..." Derpy stood there confused while trying to find a specific answer to the question. "Sorry. I just don't know."

"Maybe we'll get to that later," said Twilight. "So Derpy, let's continue where you left off. You were working at night giving messages. And then what happened?"

"Well it was as Rainbow Dash said. There was a green flash of light out of nowhere."

"Out of nowhere?" responded Rainbow as she arched a brow. "No pony's just flashing green lights out of lightning storms? Just out of thin air?"

"Well. Yeah. We all had to close our eyes though." Rainbow stops doubting the incredibility from Derpy's point of view. Covering your eyes is a natural response for sudden flashes. "While I was covering my eyes, the head manager shouted 'Look out Derpy!' The others were telling to me to move out of the way as well. When I opened my eyes, I could see it." Rainbow, Twilight, and Spike began to move in more closely. "A giant, red behemoth in metal coating was right in front of us. And it was heading towards me!" Derpy said as she tries to act frightened as she was before.

"A behemoth." Twilight said. "Derpy, it was an airship."

"I'm with Twilight here," agreed Rainbow. "Though it's weird. How can something surrounded in metal armor stay afloat without falling to the ground by its heavy weight?"

"Well it's actually possible," Twilight tries to explain. "It was due to its-

"Let's not get into all that eggheaded stuff." The pegasus shoving off the unicorn's explanation. "So Derpy, tell us. What did you do when it appeared?"

"I was thinking how to make sure not to get in its way. That thing was too wide, so I couldn't have the time to move left or right."

"Did you move over it or under it?" inquired Rainbow.

"I tried to fly over it. Afterwards I felt like I slam onto something."

"Slammed?"

"I don't know, but it felt like I've slammed onto a window."

"Ouch." Spike commented while still getting the picture as he writes.

"Are you alright," Twilight asked with worry.

Derpy rubs her nose. "Ow. It hurts, but I'm alright."

"A window."

"Yep."

"A glass window."

"Uh-huh."

"That must've been the captain's room of the airship. What did you see from the window?"

"That's the weird part. Everything inside it had a lot of flashy colors. I remember there were about five beings through the window. The two were in the front row and the three in the back. The two in the front were strange. They both had blue eyes, blue teeth, and a pair of arms. One was yellow and squared shape and the other red and circled shaped. Neither of them have legs."

"Blue eyes. Blue teeth. Hands. One yellow and squared? Spike asked Twilight.

"I believe she means cubed shape."

"Ah. And the circled?"

"Orbed shaped, Spike."

"Got it. One yellow and cubed shape. One red and orbed shape. And no legs?"

"I remember they were floating," answered Derpy.

"With wings?"

"I'm not sure."

"Okay." He looks down to write the letter. "Wings are unsure…how about the other three?" he later asks.

"The three in the back row were blurred, so I'm sorry I couldn't see much from them. I did remember that they each had a pair of arms and legs. One was large in red. Another was a bit smaller and white. I couldn't much see much on the last one, but I remember he was the smallest and I think that he was colored black."

"So what did you do then?"

"I apologized. I said 'Sorry. My bad.' After that, I tried to move out of the window. I had to do it by sliding to the side. Afterwards I saw that I was heading towards Rainbow's house and saw a bunch of books along the way. After that everything went black."

"After that thing wrecked my place," Rainbow explains, "I found Derpy around the bookshelves."

"Yeah, and that's all I can say for now."

Twilight begins to form the picture. "So here's what happens. You and pegasi were doing your jobs. While you were working, a green flash appeared out of nowhere. At the same, the red airship made its approach. Other pegasus manage to move out of the way, but you were the only one saw it from the inside." Derpy nodded. "And when you're trying to get out, the airship crashed through Rainbow's house at the same time. Thus causing you to land through her books of Daring Doo along the way."

"Hey, how did you know they were all on Daring Doo?" questioned Rainbow.

"Well, they were the only books you read."

"Yeah. They were." Rainbow blushed. "But still. Those guys are gonna pay for the damage!"

"Maybe it was an accident. Maybe Derpy was blocking their view of their piloting, so you couldn't blame them for that."

"So I should blame Derpy?"

"No. Just don't blame anyone!"

Rainbow scoffed as she crossed her forehoofs.

Twilight asks Rainbow in shifting the focus to the airship, "You said it was it headed over the Everfree Forest, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"We'll get to the bottom of this Rainbow. Right now it sounds pretty dangerous for us to venture over there at night." Twilight turns to her assistant. "Spike, you got everything down?"

"Yep. Ready when you are."

"Good. Send the letter." Spike breathes fire to the letter, sending it to Princess Celestia. "Maybe the princess will give us a mission by tomorrow when dealing with the airship. For now we need some rest."

"My house should be done with repairs by then," said Rainbow.

"Yeah. Goodnight Dash. Goodnight Derpy."

"Night."

Before heading back up to fix her house, Rainbow was looking over the horizon of the Everfree Forest.

"Dash? Are you alright?" asked Derpy.

"They'll pay. I swear once I've faced them," she pounded her forehoofs together, "I'm gonna show them what I'm made of."

* * *

 **This was originally going to be a part of the prologue, but the chapter before had about 3000+ words so I was like 'Ah screw it, just post it already so I can get some reception.' If they're positive, I'll continue; if negative, I'll discontinue.**

 **The Eggheaded stuff. I could've gone to Google and search on how airplanes or other metallic objects fly or stay afloat, but I'm not a science guy. I'm very, very terrible when it comes to science other than evolution, psychology, and small bits of neurology.**

 **It's obvious who the two in reds and one in yellow are, but who are the others? Stay tune.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire.**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA. Created by Yuji Naka**  
 **My Little Pony characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro. Created by Lauren Faust for television.**


	3. Chapter 2: An Empire's New Beginning

**The following Sonic story, other rather, Eggman's, is set after Sonic Generations.**

* * *

 _An Empire's New Beginning_

 _"Yes, Maria. Under my rule, the world will be a better place. However, that blue hedgehog. He's an obstacle that always gets in my way! There has to be a way. To have the world under my control, that rodent and his disgusting friends must be removed. Is it possible to rule the world and destroy that fiend at the same time? No. Even if that hedgehog's gone, there are others trying to oppose me. G.U.N., countries' militaries, Shadow, and other potential rivals. There has to be an alternative way. To rule this world and eliminate that hedgehog. There has to be another way. Another way…Arrggh…But how?! Where…am I going to…where…am I?"_ His vision whitens before it darkens. After that, everything became clear.

"A promise. I made a promise, Maria?" Doctor Eggman wondered. "Was it a dream…or was it a reminiscent of the past?" he asked himself. He was slowly getting up from a chair. "Strange. I wasn't seated the last time I slept. Where exactly am I?" He looked around with his vision recovering from where he had slept and a familiar scent was returning to him. He understands now where he's at. The control panels, a jungle view in the window front, computers at his command, a robot maid making the room clean as ever, and a master chair to boot. He's in the Captain's Room of his mighty Egg Carrier stationed within the jungles of the Mystic Ruins.

"Good morning sir." asked the robot maid. "Is there anything that needs to be done?"

"Huh?" a little bit surprised before going back to his usual behavior when at his command ship. "Oh..umm…ahem…This isn't much for you to do here. You can go on ahead, take your leave, and scram." He swipes his hand to shoo it away.

"Very good sir." and with that the robot maid left.

"Now where was I? Oh yes, how did I get here? Last time I remembered, I tried to defeat Sonic with my other self using the Time Eater by destroying the fabric of space and time. Was everything that has happened a dream?" He contemplates his memory while scratching his chin. "Computer!" he commanded with the monitor appearing in front of him. "Show me the status of _Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park._ " The computer showed him where his amusement park would be at, at least the remains of it with the elevator tower still standing. However it is being torn apart by government forces.

"What the," the egg-shaped doctor zooms in closely at the elevator tower that once held his galactic amusement park. It's being torn apart by G.U.N. agents in their vehicles, ships, and mechs. The mechs were dismantling the elevator piece-by-piece and the vehicles shipped them back to Earth as salvage. "Those G.U.N. geeks are destroying what was left of my amusement park! Curse them! And I was just planning to use those parts for recycle to rebuild bases of my empire. Damn them all!" He stomps the floor two times before calming down to think logically. "They won't find anything from there. All the files I've had at my Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park were destroyed. This also confirms my theory that using the Time Eater against the hedgehog was not a dream." He then remembered something that his genius brain apparently neglected.

"Wait. Then what about Cubot and Orbot?" he ask the computer. The screen enlarges to zoom in parts of space where his two robot assistants would be at. The yellow, cube-shaped robot was seen scratching his head before moving excitedly around a red orb-shaped robot, who appears to be lying down as an act of boredom and annoyance. "Hmph. Figures. That's what Orbot gets for trying to find that voice chip." Even though the doctor was the one the ordered the voice chip to be fixed in the first place. The two robots stopped at what they're doing and began swimming towards a nearby rescue ship. To Eggman's dismay, the rescue ship was a G.U.N. ship. "Oh no. They're going to be captured! If they're going to be captured, they will reveal my secret bases around the planet, even the Egg Carrier! Activate self-destruct program on Cubot and Orbot!"

"Request has been denied," the computer responded. "Action cannot be performed as units Cubot and Orbot have no such program within their functions and design."

"Ugh, this isn't good. Why didn't I plant the bombs in those idiots? Oh right, it's because they are idiots. But they hold key information of bases planted around the world!" By now the doctor would've panicked and fearing for his life right now if the computer hadn't slammed at his face to get his attention on further development. "Oh what is it now?! I can see that they're being captured, interrogated, hacked for information and…wait." He looks closely at the screen. Before his two robots enter the G.U.N. ship, it released a space pod from its rear. After Cubot and Orbot boarded ship, the G.U.N. vehicle took aim at the pod and fired missiles at it. "What are they doing?" Eggman could see that afterwards the ship flew towards the elevator, shooting down mechs and vehicles salvaging the pieces, and was last seen fleeing back to Earth. "What on earth is going on? Computer, when did this happen?" he demanded.

The computer answered, "29 minutes and 55 seconds. Still counting."

"About half an hour. Then that means…" He checked the security camera stationed at the entrance of the Egg Carrier. The camera shows that the same G.U.N. ship is parked outside.

"Master, you have visitors," a robot maid said through an intercom.

"Oh no. This isn't going to end well." He turns around to brace himself on whatever surprises may happen. The automatic door opens with something he least expected.

"Ta-da!" confetti were tossed in the air.

"What the -!"

"Surprised you huh doc! Did I surprise you? Of course I did!" the yellow cube-shaped robot was talking in a giddy girl's voice who likes to throw parties. "I was like 'Ta-da!' and you were all 'What the-!'" emoting everything that's happened.

"Cubot!" Eggman pushed him aside. "What are you doing here? And what's going on?" questioned the mad scientist.

"It's good to see you again too boss," said the red orb-shaped robot in an exciting yet sarcastic tone while following behind Cubot.

"Orbot, care to explain what's going on?"

"Well you see here, we've been rescued from the distant parts of space. Now it's good to be back to a place where anywhere can be home, on aboard the Egg Carrier." Apparently that was supposed to be recited when referring to the battleship that can fly around and be stationed anywhere. It gets pretty bothersome when used repetitively. Even the doctor's getting annoyed by the redundancy.

"Yes, I can see that." Eggman points to a screen showing the video camera of a vehicle parked outside. "And who exactly brought you back here?" An automatic door can be heard faintly as it opens with footsteps following along.

"Ah yes. We have been sent here by a kind, yet rude gentleman who is ummm-"

"Standing right behind you." A middle aged, male voice was heard.

"Oh, umm. Wha!" Orbot turns around in surprise. "I'd say! How rude! You can at least try to make a good impression in front of the doctor!" He demanded the pale-skinned man dressed in a lab coat, with white hair, and dons horned-rimmed glasses. The man pushed back his glasses with his middle finger in response to Orbot's outburst.

"So it was you. You were the one who brought back my robots." Eggman said to the stranger.

"Indeed I have. Allow me to introduce myself. I was codenamed WMD, top leading scientist for G.U.N.'s weapons, technology, and research development. You may call me Dr. Mod, or just Mod for short." He takes a bow and gives out a handshake. "At your service."

"Yes." Eggman said in a formally polite, yet still holding suspicion. "The pleasure's all mine." He shook hands. "So what you brings you here, G.U.N. scientist?

"I was a G.U.N. scientist," He reminded the past tense. "Now that I quit by force as a shift of alignment to you."

"Really? Care to elaborate what you mean by 'force'?

"It's a top secret procedure for G.U.N. scientists to be bonded to G.U.N. for a lifetime, even under retirement. They didn't want any top secret files, projects, and intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction leaked to the public, so they would have our contracts terminated if we were to leave, publish our research notes, or leak out sensitive information in our daily lives. Fortunately, I was able to express my resignation with my neck intact."

 _"Risking your life to come to me. Yes, I may have some use of you, but what do you expect in return?"_ Eggman thought in his head.

"And I'm sure you've seen it," pointing to a screen showing the earth's atmosphere. He walks towards it and rewinds until the part of his transgression showed. "Originally the mission was to find any valuable data to exploit your means of world domination. Around where your supposed theme park would be at, we found nothing. So we just pick up whatever's left like materials used to build the elevator. Then we saw two active entities going on about in space. A rescue team was formed, and we found out that they happened to be those two," pointing the two robots in the Captain's Room. "The mission was to extract data from them to pinpoint your bases and exploit them. But I have my own objectives..." He made a grimaced smile while pushing back his glasses. "Agent Steve and his annoying bunch. They've been a thorn on my side for a while. And to think they actually believed they have to use a space pod to retrieve those machines," snickering to himself while referring to the two robots. Cubot was angered by that comment. Orbot had to hold him down.

"He just said we're machines!" Cubot whispered in his normal yet obnoxious voice.

"I know it's rude, but that's because we are. Let him finish his part of the story before we can have a say in it."

Mod continued on, "And shot them right on. Bam." He said with the video replaying his missiles hitting his target as done in the past. "After that I had to destroy any witnesses and evidence before the Central Information Agency can blacklist me. While I was on my way to Earth, I had to hack into your robots to pinpoint your base location."

From that, Orbot begin to step in. "That was very rude of you."

"Yeah, haven't ya heard of mindin yer own business!" Cubot said in a Sicilian, mafia accent.

"You've even broke Cubot's voicechip. After we've worked so hard on fixing it." Orbot lamented.

"And yer could've just asked!"

"I did. You just said the doctor found a purple energy source with eyes and a mouth and he simply disappeared."

"We were telling the truth!"

"Yes, but unreliable ones. I need to know specifically where he's at. I assume he should be at a base mobile enough to be anywhere. And here he is."

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed. Mentally to himself, " _Though I don't even know how I got back here in the first place. Moments ago I was lying on the floor of limbo with my past self. I slept and when I awoke I was back at the Egg Carrier. I'm going to have to contemplate on that later. For now I have to test this new accomplice."_ Eggman begins to ask the questions. "So why did you come here? What purpose do you have in service of me?"

"The Commander-in-Chief has made proposals on cutting down G.U.N.'s weaponry, including the ones in development. If that were to pass, they wouldn't have any need for scientists who developed them, and of course I had already explained what happened to those whom G.U.N. wouldn't have any use for in the field of secrecy.

"So you've defected G.U.N. and join me to save your life?"

"Oh no, it's not just that. It's actually a lot simpler. I like to see the results of my weapon projects go through and made its use. To the president, there was no need for more weapons as there are no wars concerning the United Federation. Most of the conflicts they had were with you and all they had to do was stand idly by while a blue hedgehog does their job for them. I enjoy doing something, and I couldn't stay in G.U.N. any longer if they aren't going to give me any orders to do so. I could at least do it with someone that does."

"Hmm. Not a bad idea on your part, and I always enjoy telling people what to do other than robots. You're hired."

The former G.U.N. scientist smiled, earning the envy from Cubot and Orbot. They would have dwell on that feeling if they weren't listening any further of what the new recruit had to say, "There was a vacant space while I was on my way to the Captain's Room. May I use that as my research facility?"

"I don't really have much use for that room, so you may do as you please."

"Splendid! My assistant is already setting it up."

"Your assistant?"

"Yes. He should be here soon," Mod looked at his watch. "So what's next on the agenda?" he asked his new employer.

"I've been thinking," Eggman answered. "Whenever I try to take over the world, Sonic and his friends are always there to stop me. And when I try to build something or come up with a strategy to destroy that meddlesome hedgehog, there's always a third party interfering. It seems that no matter what I do here on earth, I never succeed. Back in my visits to alien planets however, no one's been able to stop me. No Sonic. No G.U.N. No one."

"So what you're saying here is?"

"In order to build the Eggman Empire on Earth, I have to build my army and formulate my plans elsewhere. Once I gain enough strength and firepower, I'll be able to take on Sonic, G.U.N, and… the world! All I need right now is a Chaos Emerald to power my Egg Carrier and reach a different destination."

"And where would that be, doctor?" Orbot stepped in to ask.

"Anywhere. Far away from here. It could be in another planet. It could be in a different dimension. All I need is one Chaos Emerald to induce Chaos Control for travel. And I can't have that hedgehog and his friends involved lest they may foil my plans."

"Now where would we get one?" Cubot asked, this time in a more thuggish voice.

"You guys are in luck then." Mod pulls out a green piece of jewelry out of his lab coat. "I happen to have one already."

"A Chaos Emerald?! How did you get it?"

"G.U.N. always has a spare just in case. And as their top scientist, I was eager to do some research on it. Of course, it wasn't easy getting my hands on it, especially when a certain agent wasn't willing to lend it."

"Indeed. Cubot! Orbot!" Eggman ordered.

"Yes sir!" They both said in salute."

"Prepare the Egg Carrier. We're getting off this planet." The yellow and red robot moved in forward to the control panels, setting coordinates, and the Egg Carrier lifts off. "So the agent?" Eggman asks Mod, knowing that the upset agent likely Shadow. "He's not going to suspect it?"

"He probably thinks I'm dead. Which reminds me." Mod pulls out a remote detonator and pressed the button. The G.U.N. ship that was parked outside before the Egg Carrier took flight exploded. "I had to make sure there's no evidence left behind before we make our journey."

"Crafty and resourceful. You'll make a fine addition to the Eggman Empire," the doctor complimented to which Mod thanked. "And without further ado," Eggman pressed a button, activating a beacon to appear from the floor and placed the Emerald on the beacon after seating on his master chair. "Activate Chaos Control, now!" Unbeknownst to him, a hum of an automatic door was made. Upon opening, the entrance reveals a dark figure walking towards Mod, who's standing beside Eggman.

"Did I miss anything?" said the dark figure.

"No, my assistant." said Mod, the former GUN scientist. "You're just in time for the phenomenon." Eggman was about to look at what this assistant looks like, but he shrugged it off for later as he's focusing right now on the Chaos Emerald. With the Emerald's energy channeling through the beacon, the ship's power enveloped in a green flow before everything around began to disappear from earth. Everyone in the ship had their eyes shut from the flash.

There were no witnesses to everything has that happened so far in the Mystic Ruins. The exceptions are two, a cat and a frog.

"What was that noise, Froggy?" asked Big in his usual slow voice.

"Ribbit," the little frog jumped.

"That was the Egg Carrier we just saw," stating the obvious. He looked out further from the jungles and saw an explosion after the Egg Carrier took off. Then Big looked up at the battleship and saw it disappear in a green flash.

"That Eggman must be up to something, and it's not good."

"Ribbit," groaned Froggy.

* * *

Meanwhile in the flying fortress, everyone had opened their eyes.

"Orbot, what's the status situation?" Eggman asked.

"Well, it seems from our teleportation we're not on earth," The robot replied.

"I know that! That wasn't a rhetorical question," retorted the doctor.

"Oh, um, yes. It is nighttime. The moon is really bright. And from what I've gathered, there is an overcast of clouds below us. The weather scans indicate that it's currently raining, but we're not getting any showers here."

"That's because we're above them you nincombot!" Eggman throws a wrench at the red robot.

"Oh dear." Unlike his yellow partner who would take the hit, the orbed-shaped automaton folded his arms and head into his body. His round shape structure deflected the blow from the wretch and rolls slowly back to his original position. "Oh what did I do to deserve this," Orbot moaned.

"And that's not aww doc, it wooks wike we got owselves company." Cubot stated in a voice of a hunter for rabbit season. The captain and the crew looked closely through the windows on the outside. They could see around their massive airship a flock of equines flying on the clouds and in the air.

"Oh my, horses are flying in the night sky," his red partner replied.

"They wooked wike ponies Owbot."

"Owlbot!" he misheard. "I swear we really need to fix that voice chip of yours."

"They have wings on top of them," a dark, creeping voice from the assistant replied. "They must be pegasus, pegasi for plural."

Cubot and Orbot were chatting around about the voice chip and the perpetrator who caused it. When they turn around at the horned-rimmed subject of their conversation, they could see that same person standing next to their creator had his accomplice brought along. The being had the looks of a black creature with similar appearances present behind the doctor's back.

"Hey Doc, doesn't he -" Cubot's comment came to stop when Orbot grab hold of his partner.

"Shh. Remember what Mod said?" They looked at the man in the white, lab coat with a 'shush' gesture along with another saying 'not yet'. "He'll have our nuts and bolts if we introduce too soon."

"Yikes." Both robots turn back around in their positions to pilot the airship while avoiding suspicion of the bald doctor. When they return to their post, a pegasus in gray coating, blonde hair, and crossed eyes was slammed flat in front of the cockpit. This surprised the crew, seeing one of creatures up close. They could barely, but can hear what it had to say.

"Sorry. My bad." It slipped to the side as the ship went through a cloud decorated with rainbows.

"That was an odd turn of events." Orbot bluntly stated.

"I know. I mean was that a mawe ow femawe"

"You mean male or female? And that wasn't my concern. It looks like that cloud was very ornate. If we went through it, oh dear, it'll be our responsibility for ruining someone's work of art."

"Those things are all too trivial!" Eggman shouted, earning the stares from the crew. He then calms down from his outburst and recovering from all the sudden changes like the pegasus and the rainbow cloud. "No matter. Trivial as they may be. They provide insight on where we're on and what we're going to do next."

"Indeed." Mod bowed in reply. "What's our next course of action?" Eggman remained silent. After going through a cloud colored with rainbows, the Egg Carrier was traveling over a large dense of forest. Upon reaching the edge of the forest, they could see a large gap between the edge and the other side, a fog down below the canyon, a fragile bridge connecting the two sides, and a ruined castle structure where the bridge leads up to. The computer scans showed physical parts down in the ravine, so they weren't too blinded from the fog when descending in the gap. Finally Eggman answered Mod's question.

"We'll need to establish a base here and build up fortification. Once we have that, we'll need to gather intelligence of our surrounding area and this world. Then, we'll know what to do for our next course of action. The ravine is a start for my settlement and fog above provides cover. The castle over there is something I have my eye on. Now then," he turns to his robots. "Cubot, Orbot. Off to the assembly lines. We'll need some Egg Pawns on the double."

"What do we need the Egg Pawns for, doc?" Cubot asked.

"To start building our base you nincombot!" He kicked Cubot to a wall, who then later bounced off and did his performance trick like the last time he was kicked.

"Ta-da!"

"Grrr." Frustrated, he shouts, "Get to work already!" And with that, the robots fled. Mod stepped in forward to pick the green gem from the beacon.

"In the meantime, I'll be working on the Chaos Emerald. I've been wanting to do some research with it."

"No. I will need you here for armament. We need to manufacture troops in case of an emergency."

"Very well then. I will leave my research here with my assistant." He walks down behind Eggman to give the gem to his assistant. Eggman wanted to see what he looked like after finding space for his base, so he turned around and was shocked to see what the assistant looked like.

"S-Shadow!" He could see before him the Ultimate Lifeform. However, he was different from what his grandfather created. Unlike the black hedgehog whom he knew had the color red on spikes, shoes, and eyes; the one he sees before him had gray spikes, green eyes, and no mouth.

"This is not Agent Shadow. Please introduce yourself." The former G.U.N. scientist commanded his assistant before he could take his leave with the Chaos Emerald.

"I am Mephiles. And as I am to Mod," he bows, "I am at your service." He gives out a handshake.

 _Mephiles. Where have I heard that name from?_ Ignoring his feeling of Déjà vu, the doctor shook hands with another new recruit and replied, "Yes. Well, you know what they say, the more the merrier."

* * *

 **At first you may think that the black and white figure were Rouge and Shadow from the previous chapter. Nope, it turns out to be Mod, a human OC, and Mephiles.**

 **After the events of Generations, Eggman finds himself in the Egg Carrier. To confirm whether or not everything that has happened a dream, he looked at past events in Colors. And while thinking about the past, he looked to the present with his apprentices' arrival along with some new ones.**

 **Since his attempts at world domination sucked at earth, maybe he'll find some success in other worlds before going into his own.**

 **The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters may face some remodeling. Based on the second episode of the first season after the expression of Loyalty.**

 **Who is Mod? Just an OC I just made up for convenience. No one really important. And Mephiles? How did he came to be after what's happened in Sonic 06. It's almost the worst game in my opinion since I kept on dying due to inconveniences though the boss fights were very enjoyable. Sonic R was the worst since I can't get the controls right or even win 1st place in a race with little to no cars in it. Back to the topic of Mephiles, whatever theories you've come up with I appreciate it, but everything will be explained in later chapters.**

 **Shhh. Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting ponies. Wait a minute. The tagline was supposed to be SA2's Dark Side trailer. Ahem.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA. Created by Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro. Created by Lauren Faust for television.**


	4. Chapter 3: The Voice from Hell

**Originally this chapter was titled, " _The Voice from the Hell,"_ after Bak. R's epic orchestral version of _Sonic the Hedgehog's Final Zone._ This track was used in a Death Battle trailer for Eggman vs. Wily, and that Screwattack episode is where I got the inspiration in making this fanfic. But for this chapter title, I removed the second 'the' for the sake of simplicity. Enjoy.**

* * *

 _The Voice from Hell_

Distance miles away from Ponyville lie the majestic capital of Equestria, Canterlot. Like Ponyville, the residents of the capital city are asleep in their homes. Save for those working night shifts such as guard duty along with those in authority, the two princesses of day and night, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Canterlot was not disrupted by their neighbor's incident. The princess of the night however, saw everything under her moonlight.

"What strange magic," Luna contemplating on what had happened earlier ago. As she does so, she walks the royal halls leading to her sister's room. "Only a high level magic user can perform such a feat, but the energy it gives off. It seems so…foreign." And the transport is not something an equine could've built, neither was it designed by the griffons, the changelings, or even those of Tartarus. She stopped in front of her sister's door, feeling there may be some revelation to be gained after going behind it. "If there's anything I do," she readies her magic, "I'll do what I can to help," and opens the door. Upon entry, Luna could see her sister was disturbed with a letter scroll rolled up upon reading. "Sister, have you received word from your student?" Luna assumed.

"I have," Celestia replied, "something has happened over Ponyville. Twilight was giving a full report on this matter and is waiting for further instructions by tomorrow. I'm sure you saw what happened under your night sky." She levitates the scroll to Luna, to which the latter opens and reads. Everything that was said in the letter relates to her watch.

"Twilight has indeed witnessed this strange phenomenon as I did," Luna said as she read along the lines of the mysterious green light and a red, armored airship appearing out of the flash. "Interesting." She reads the part about how Twilight's friends got themselves involved in the situation, particularly Rainbow Dash and a friend named Derpy. "Oh dear, I'm sorry what happened to her friend and Rainbow's house." Then there's the part about strange creatures commanding the airship. "What her friend saw, blue eyes and blue teeth. It almost sounds like a changeling, but having the colors red and yellow, two arms, no legs, with cubic and orbed shapes? This isn't something found in the creatures glossary."

"Yes," Celestia replied. "There are three others in the back row mentioned in the letter. They are a bit blurred from her vision, making this a mystery."

"They have a pair of arms and legs. One was large and red, one smaller but medium sized and in white, and the smallest is in black. What are they?" Luna questioned. _What are they indeed; they could be any walking biped such as a minotaur or a canine. But none of these creatures are able to build such a massive, metallic structure. Are they from a different world? If so, where did they come from? How did they find different means other than magic to enter Equestria? And why have they come to Equestria in the first place?_ Luna finishes the sentence of Twilight asking for a mission, "In order to provide Twilight and her friends an objective, we'll have to acquire foreknowledge on the subject."

"Correct. We need to know whether or not if the creatures in the airship are hospitable or hostile to Equestria. Would you look in this matter, my sister?"

"Yes, I will check this out under discretion." Her horn glows and her body surrounds itself in a magic aura. Luna becomes misted and enters astral projection. She phased through the walls of Canterlot and flew to Ponyville to investigate.

In astral form, she'll be visible only to ethereal beings, high-level magic users, and any whom Luna wishes to see in person. She'll be invisible spiritually as mist to mortal eyes. And as she has shown with a certain flightless, pegasus filly, she's able to enter dreams. With her position and power, she can enter many dreams, and this was her first concern when entering Ponyville. The green flash did after all give off a strange energy.

"I do hope the object didn't do much harm to affect everypony's sleep." She said to herself fearing that the energy may be contagious. Before she could look towards the Everfree Forest to investigate the structure, Luna feels obliged to look into dreams of Ponyville to ensure their safety. Their uneasiness in rest has gotten the princess's curiosity. Hopefully she'll be able to calm them down with her power and intervention. "This is strange." She looked at one dream after another. "The energy has similar power to the Nightmare Dreamscape, being able spread and infect more than one pony with nightmares," except that these dreams weren't focused particularly on a pony's fear. The afflicted had dreams of monsters and unusual creatures. "Those animals," she saw through the dreams, "they're all covered in armored." Some of them have wheels. Others are armed with strange weaponry. Armed weaponry such as an armored bee's laser capability from its stinger. But then there's more. Luna is seeing dreams of a green-eyed creature made of water flooding cities, a lizard-like being attached to a space object falling into a planet's atmosphere, a metal, blue biped claiming to rule over all living things before transforming into a draconic monster, an army of black creatures destroying cities, one creating devastation through lava and flame, a deity rising out of a broken world, innocent entities being absorbed into a piece of machinery, and another on what appears to be a clockwork-machined entity. All the dreams that the ponies had in common have a large, egg-shaped, biped creature in red involved. "Could he be the same one in the airship described by Twilight and her friends?" Luna thought to herself. "And those things, it seems where ever he goes; destruction is follows. And what is he? Is he…a human?" It is said that humans can peak to high intelligence capable of advancing technologies with their thoughts and can use their hands as manual backup when in numbers. Maybe the airship was a product of their doing. But coming here to Equestria requires magic, and humans are far from magical. Luna collected those dreams in her memory bank as safekeeping. The ponies can then develop dreams of their own before the green light ever flashed. Luna then moved onward towards the Everfree Forest.

Upon entry of the wild forest, she could hear moans and felt tears close by. "This must be Fluttershy," remembering her home close to the Everfree and recognizing her voice. Luna phased through the cottage and she could see that the kind pegasus was crying under her bed with animals by her side.

"Dragon…Dragon…Please…go…away," the pink-maned pegasus whimpered. Luna moved in closer, feeling sorry for the bearer of the Element of Kindness from what she witness and perceiving it as her known phobia.

"Be not afraid, Fluttershy. I assure you. From what thou hast witnessed, it is not what you feared." The pegasus slowly calms down. She then relaxes in sleep as she feels Luna's presence taking her fear away. Animals who were concerned for her also relaxed. Feeling accomplished, Luna moves on towards her mission.

What she saw while traveling through the Everfree were frantic. Animals were going more berserk than before. Chimeras and Manticores were biting at each other. Doing what nature does without civil intervention: survival of the fittest. Their unrest is preventing Luna from helping them, so she couldn't do what she can do for them but move on, and let nature allow these poor animals commit acts of savagery. There was one that hasn't been partaken with the violence going on, and this is shown with a tree filled with fumes, an enchantment circling the tree, and foreign chanting. _Zecora._ The potion alchemist herself was meditating in spirit. This got the princess's attention, neither was her presence unnoticed by the enchantress.

"Ah, Princess of the Night," Zecora said. "Your presence here is welcoming after my recent plight."

"Greetings Zecora, and what do you mean by plight? asked Luna.

"The first is what you see around you. What has happened over the Everfree is also affecting me too. Out of the circle of my home, the world of the Everfree is wild. With my enchantments and my potions, my world is mild."

"Indeed. And what of the second?" Luna asked eagerly to learn what another is, knowing her that the airship maybe the one causing panic in the Everfree as it did with Ponyville's dreams.

"Ah, another is one concerning the being over the sky. Wildlife was unleashed in panic and fear when it flew by." Luna pays close attention to Zecora, concerned with what she's about to say next. "Into this I've looked into detail. But what I have witnessed, it made me pale."

"Oh, and how did you find it without going out of your circle?" knowing if Zecora were to step out, she might not survive the animal frenzy. "And where did you find it?"

"I was in spirit as you are here, with my spirit I was able to see what was happening over there." Luna nodded to the being also capable of astral projection. Zecora continued, "Down below the Ancient Castle stood the vessel. Infiltrate without detection was I able. But from what I saw, it was unnatural. Two beings with no legs are not in flesh, and what they said to each other I couldn't catch. I moved on and saw another two, what they said in detail I couldn't understand them too. The first two talked normally in pettiness, the latter two had detailed means of language I couldn't understand, your Highness."

Twilight mentioned there are five. Four of them are covered; that leaves one.

"I did see one more, a dark creature. He had arms and legs, but no mouth to feature. He had a jewel in hand and enters a room, I followed behind. The door then had a voice boomed."

"A voice?"

"I know not how it senses my projection, but the message the voice was giving me. It was with malice intention."

"What did it say?"

 _"Get out…get out…_ From there I took my leave, fearing of the consequences if I don't heed. Return back home I do, with my home safeguarded with my enchantments and my perfumes."

"I see. Zecora, I would like to thank you for your time."

"No need, but be warned of lingering over there any longer, for staying there the consequences can be dire." Luna took caution and moved on.

"Down where the ancient castle stood. It was also once our home where Tia and I stood," Luna said apparently saying it with Zecora's tongue as she phased through statues of Timberwolves caused by the cockatrice. The castle was also the same place that got her transformed back from Nightmare Moon to Princess Luna. It was left abandoned in ruin again when the Elements had done its purpose.

She stumbled upon the cliff, looked down, and flew towards the fog. Normally no one can see through, but in astral form the way is clear. Down beneath the canyon lays the same aircraft that made its appearance in Ponyville. Upon moving in closer, she could hear banging noises. Closer and closer, she could see orange, metallic bipeds with using hammers and saws, wearing helmets, riding tractors, holding pieces of metal and glass in hands, and other construction materials. Strange that neither Twilight nor Zecora mentioned additional crew members of the ship. And what they were building, it looks like a tube-like structure leading to the top of the cliff. It must be an elevator from the looks of it.

"But what are they?" The bipeds look exactly alike. It's almost as if they were built to look alike and perform the same function. She used her magic to scan one of them. "It's not living," She sticks her head phasing to look into the insides of one with a saw. "Neither are they dead." Instead of flesh, bones, and organs, she saw only boards, screws, and other metal materials not seen or built in Equestria. Automatons. "I believe Twilight Sparkle was doing a research project on them." But the common techniques used for functional automatons would be either magic, water, motion, and air. They had none but electricity and a strange, energy source giving off a faint fragrance as the green flash. She moves in closer to the ship. As she does, an echo was faintly felt in the astral realm. "This must be the voice Zecora warned. I have to be careful." And enters the ship she goes.

Inside it was something out of the ordinary; inside the ship looked almost like a palace with hallways, large corridors, balconies, and maids sweeping the floors. The exception of a normal palace is that the ship had gears, engines, machinery, vehicles connected to different rooms, and the maids were also automatons. From there she begins her investigating mission; see to it that it gets done. Large columns of orange automatons were coming out of a room. She phased through its automatic door and saw that they were walking out of factorylike machinery operated by beings described in Twilight's letter and Zecora's description. The one was red and the other yellow in color. One orbed and the other cubed. Both of them had blue eyes, blue teeth, a pair of arms, but no legs. They were floating with no wings behind them and operating on a machine that's constructing the orange workers, with the one in red with the controls and the yellow pulling levers.

"500 Egg Pawns should do fine." The red one said.

"Eeyup." The yellow replied in a farmer's accent. They were done operating. After an army of orange automatons dubbed 'Egg Pawns' got their construction equipment and head out for work on the outside, the two got together with the red one sighing.

"What's wrong, Orbot?" the yellow asked.

"Well Cubot," the red one called Orbot replied. "It's just that… after all that's happened, do you think the doctor will make it this time? I mean once he's done with the mission in this world, will he fail again afterwards?"

"The doctor? A mission in this world?" Luna takes notes after what this Orbot had said. "What is their mission? And where did they come from?" None of the talking machines were able to hear her thoughts.

"Especially when we'll gonna deal Sonic and his friends later on." continued Orbot.

"Come on y'all," the squared automaton called Cubot said. "We got some help with Mod guy and that Shadow looks-alike."

"That's the thing, can they be trusted? They weren't honest with G.U.N. with their resignations, and it's not like the doctor had any trustworthy assets in the past. Plus Mod and his assistant wouldn't let us into that room of theirs."

"Hopefully the doctor'll learn from his mistakes. I wonder what they're doing up there?"

"I don't know, but probably some important stuff that shouldn't our concern. In the meantime, we're going to have to fix that voicechip of yours."

"Yeah, maybe a sleep mode will restart my system."

"Probably so. Perhaps it'll also repair the damages from what that hacker did to your voicechip."

"Yeah." Cubot yawned. "Nighty night," and rolled in a box.

"Now what should I do while you're fixing yourself? Hmm," Orbot sarcastically and rhetorically asked himself as he scratches his iron chin. "Orders were to build Egg Pawns and establish base, but we're finished with the Egg Pawns. Was it to build the base with the Egg Pawns or am I to build the base myself?" He then goes on and on repeating questions after questions with different synonyms in them.

Luna was just as confused as Zecora by strange terms uncommonly used by living creatures such as restarting, damages (usually biological beings uses the term injury), sleep mode, repairs, systems, hacking, and voicechips. She puts this aside, looked to the one on resting mode, and closes in on Cubot to see if he dreams.

Usually when entering one's dream, it is like entering a different realm. From looking in the yellow automaton in sleep mode, it was all dark and nothing but boards. Looking deeper into one board, she could see signs. One of the signs says, "Primary Function: do whatever the doctor tell you what to do whenever possible." The primary function must be giving these automatons a purpose, but how is this possible without magic? She then looked at another piece of the board. This one here had interesting data inside of it, particularly memories on events within the past 24 hours. She looked it up and sees from his vision memory of him and his partner swimming in space. It seemed that the automatons didn't need oxygen while swimming in outer space. For a while, the being Cubot was just waving with his hands on about how he had his voicechip fixed. The red Orbot was getting tired and bored about of his partner's incessant nonsense and decided to get in lying-down position and acted like he's sleeping. The replay would've been going around for 23 hours and 30 minutes had Luna not have fast forwarded until something out of the ordinary stands out.

"Look Orbot! We're saved!"

"Really?! Finally, a rescue ship has arrived!" A green vehicle with a G insignia was flying towards them and the two swam to get on board. When they entered, a pod was ejected after they passed by it. After that, the door upon entry closes and they could hear explosions on the outside.

"Oh dear, I hope the pilot knows where he's going." Orbot sarcastically said. More explosions were heard with the vessel taking its course.

"Yeah it feels like we're going to back to Earth." Cubot expressed. From inside the 'G' ship, a black creature of small stature that the robots recognize made its approach.

"This must be him; the smallest in black." Luna said as he matches the description in the letter and Zecora's eyewitness.

"Hey wait a minute. Aren't you Shadow the Hedgehog?" asked Cubot.

 _A Hedgehog? They're supposed to be smaller and on four. This Earth really is a strange, new world, different from ours._

"Well according to the past archives," Orbot examined, "he does match the image of the hedgehog. However, the colors are a tad bit different and he doesn't have a mouth." The dark creature that's supposedly 'Shadow the Hedgehog' glared in at Cubot. The creature points his finger at the yellow automaton. He did not have a mouth but his muzzle moved with voice patterns matching his expression.

"I am Mephiles, and you will not refer to me as that doppelganger!" He said it out in frustration. He clutched his fist in anger.

"Oh!" Cubot covered himself and whimpered. "Sorry." Mephiles turns himself away from the cubed-shape automaton and turns to the one in white who made his appearance.

"Is he a human too?" Luna asked herself. And from the looks of him, he's wearing attire similar to the researchers at Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot Archives. The one in white must be a scientist.

"In G.U.N., I'm codenamed WMD. You may call me Dr. Mod, or Mod for short. Now then, where is the doctor?"

"Uh who? You?" Cubot acted like he's playing dumb.

"Where is Dr. Eggman?" The man in horn-rimmed glasses asked sternly.

"Umm. Uh. Umm. That's a really hard question. But...he was...he kinda disappeared."

"Disappeared? To where exactly?" He harshly interrogated.

"We don't know." Orbot stepped in. "First thing we knew he founded a strange, purple energy source with eyes and a mouth. He moved towards it and he simply disappeared."

"Hmm. I'm going to have to see that for myself." The man in white called Mod moves in on Cubot.

"Hey, whadidya think you doing?! Stop!" By then everything in the past went static and blanked. The Cubot at the present had woken up and Luna is back at the operating room with Orbot pestering Cubot on next objectives.

"I know what we must do now! In order to speed up the construction process, we'll need more Egg Pawns.

"Oh, uh. Right you are partner." Cubot said in a grumpy old man's voice. "Isn't that what we're here for?

"Well, I was analyzing the wording of the doctor's mission to verify our objectives. So let's get to it!" They then moved back at the operating machine and to construct more units. Luna, while the machines and the technology amaze her, feels like she isn't making any progress. The knowledge she's gathered didn't really answer her questions: how did they get here, why are they here and what is their purpose? From the two she saw, they speak nothing but trivial concerns as Zecora defines their talk as pettiness. At least from the looks of things, they seemed pretty harmless. The other two from the memory though, the one in black and other in white, they seemed like a harsh bunch. She phased out of the room to the hallway, hoping to seek answers. Along the way, she could see the creature that angrily denied as Shadow the Hedgehog walk out of an automatic door. He turns towards where Luna is, facing her as if he's seeing her.

"Can he see me?" said the surprise mare. Only a high-level magic user can see astral projections, is he one? Instead, he just walked pass through her like nothing unusual has happened and moved on for his next directive. She moved down the hallway, passing by the door he came out of, and moved to a entrance that sticks out. A door with E,G,G,M,A, and N buttons in front and on the floor. "The one in white was asking for an 'Eggman.' Remembering seeing an egg-shape human in the dreams, could this be him? She then felt a tremor echoing in the astral realm.

 _"Get…Out…"_ Luna turned back to looked at the door she had passed by not too long ago.

 _"He had a jewel in hand and enters a room, I followed behind. The door then had a voice boomed,"_ remembering the words of Zecora. He didn't exactly have a jewel in hand when coming out of the door. _"…but be warned of lingering over there any longer, for staying there the consequences can be dire,"_ remembering another flashback as it came to her.

"I see. If I get closer to the door, the thing behind it will know. I have to make sure not to get close to it lest it may warn the others." She heads forward for E.G.G.M.A.N. door in the hall. She hesitantly stopped, "Oh I do want to know what's behind that door earlier," she said playfully to herself reminding this part of the quest to be like a guessing game back at Nightmare Night. This isn't a time for games however, "I have to hurry. I can't stay here any longer." She moves to the next door. In it, she sees flashing buttons, screens, and a familiar human in white with another large in red discussing matters of their situation. "This must be Dr. Eggman I presume." judging humorously by his egg-shape size. She slightly chuckled, but moved in closer of the scientists' discussion. In front of their discussions were two additional automatons. One was black, has two clawed arms, one green eye, a tail, and the label 101. The other was red with one arm, a strange object Luna couldn't really identify but mostly likely a cannon on the other arm, two green eyes, two legs, and a label 102. These machines looked more elegantly and heavily armored than the automatons Luna saw earlier.

The two humans were talking about technicalities and using terminologies far beyond Equestria's thesaurus, so Luna could barely understand what they're talking about. The man in white identified as Mod said something where Luna could finally understand, "so if we were to run into wildlife here?"

"We'll be well-prepared now that we have the best of my soldiers ready for combat," the red replied.

"That'll be for the wildlife, but what about confronting indigenous civilization? We'll start with an invasion?" There Luna tensed herself, feeling that there may be harm from these humans after all. If they have armed soldiers, especially machined, they may be dangerous. But referring to us as indigenous? They're foreigners indeed. Hopefully we may come to an understanding that Equestria doesn't mean any harm, though the Everfree doesn't really follow our example.

"No. If they are civilized, we may not need any violence involved." Hearing from the egg-shaped doctor, Luna relaxed. "They could have knowledge useful for our plans. Once we have that, we can make way for a course of action." Ironic, they want to know about us just as much as we want of them, but what is their plan? Mod presses one of the buttons on a panel close to the black automaton with 101 and blueprints of its schematic prints out.

"Interesting."

"Indeed, Beta is equipped with high-speed jet boosters, teleportation, and energy shield. With its tracking system, he can fire lock-on homing missiles, uses its twin laser cannons to cause area-of-effect explosions, and its claw to shield against incoming fire and for melee combat.

"In G.U.N.'s combat experience, we have never faced such a design. And according to this one here, neither was it destroyed by the hedgehog." _Again with the hedgehog? There was one in black, but who else could they mean? The Mephiles being did mentioned a doppelganger._ "And from what his résumé is saying, it was unleashed when the Egg Carrier was out of commission. It battled another robot, E-102 Gamma, and they destroyed each other in the end." Luna looks towards another automaton with that label.

 _"A robot? This is what they refer to them?"_

"At first I thought it was a sibling rivalry," Eggman answered Mod in their conversation. "I wanted to see if one can be proven better than the other, so I had them compete with Gamma emerging victorious."

"Bearing a grudge against its brother and you gave him an upgrade to improve on its performance. At first you thought?

"When I stumbled upon their bodies and looked into their mainframe computer system, Beta is just as you call holding a grudge. But inside Gamma there was a glitch in his programming. From what I've seen in his memory log, after his confrontation with Sonic and Amy, his AI went AWOL, went rogue, and labeled me as the enemy, thereby destroying everything I've ever created, including Beta."

"That's pretty dangerous, and they're powered up by animals inside of them?"

"Yes."

"Those animals, are they aware they're inside the robots? Do they operate it?"

"Yes and no. I developed a structure that makes animals living batteries while they remain inside the robots. As batteries, they are put in a hibernation process where their bodies are placed in a state of suspended animation. This slows down their biological functions such as the need for food. At the same time their life energy provides an energy source for the robot they're in."

"Interesting. So that way you don't have to feed them or take care of them when they're sick."

"Exactly. What's better, I can expand their lifespan a hundredfold. Maybe even forever."

"That's impressive work." Mod said with his brows up. "It's like you've found the method of everlasting life. Have you thought about applying them on humans?"

"Yes, I have. The animals I've used were only part of that experiment. When it applies that on humans as well, there wouldn't be a need for wars over scarce resources; no need for crime such such as robbery for them; and no need to grief or fear death."

"Amazing," Luna feels astonished. Despite being intellect beings, the humans are having the same problems as we do with their wars, poverty, and distress. These scientists may have a solution to solve all of their problems, but what's stopping them from going through?

"However, that project came to a close now that meddlesome hedgehog keeps getting in the way and starts 'freeing' these robots. Since then I've been focusing all resources in eliminating that rat. Once I do that, I can finally I create a utopia on Earth."

"Speaking of resources, I've been meaning ask-"

 _"Get...Out…"_ Luna looked around.

"It's that voice again." She looked at the scientists and it didn't sound like it came from them. They were still holding their conversation with their mouths moving and making gestures, but Luna couldn't hear a thing. Everything was muted.

 _"Get out…!"_ The astral realm begins trembling. In the material world, nothing is really happening. To Luna, everything around was distorting.

 _"Get out…Get…out…!"_ became ever louder.

"Where is it coming from?" The scientists around her weren't aware of anything and continued on with their work. Then the dark creature, Mephiles, came in through the automatic door. When the door opened, she can feel it.

 _"Get out…!"_

"Was it from him? This Mephiles? Was he aware of my presence and feigning ignorance? A false alarm?" Luna thought. When the door closes, the voice was a bit dimmer but still just as a loud with its echoes. The one in black was holding onto some blueprints in hand. He walks past through Luna and showed his research to the scientists. "No, he doesn't know I'm here. Wait." She then remembers from Zecora. "The door!" She phased out of the research room. In the halls, walls, the corridors, and the maids, everything was distorted in astral view. Only the path to the door was clear.

 _"Get out! Get out! Get out!"_ This time the sound became clear as it was vapid.

Flashing back, _"I know not how it senses my projection, but the message, the voice was giving me, was with malice intention."_

"Malice? This creature is demonic! I have to make my escape…no. We all fear the unknown, and we must face our fears. And as the Princess of the Night, I do not fear thee! Show yourself!" she demanded as she charges to the door.

 _"Get out!"_

"Very well, you leave me no choice!" She phased through the door. Behind it, everything was dark. Luckily as Princess of the Night, she can see through the darkness as though it were day. She didn't need her night vision though as a green light glowed in the middle of the room. Upon it was a green jewel.

"This gem. It's giving off energy used for the flash." She stepped in closer to it while almost materializing herself to gaze at a structure. "This thing here is far from magical. It's mystical. This could explain how the humans got here. But the voice, could this be the one? No. The voice had to be-"  
 _  
"Begone!"_

Before she could turn to the direction of the voice, which sounded rawer than before, the green light flashed from the jewel. She covered her astral eyes. When she opened them, she finds herself back on top of the cliff. The tube that the Egg Pawns were constructing at the bottom was finished at the top completed as an elevator. The two talkative automatons, or robots, as the scientists referred to their kind, were using it.

"Now that we're finished wit' the elevator," Cubot said in another different accent, "now what?"

"Well the boss did say he had an eye on that castle," Orbot said. "I'd say with remodel it in his taste."

"One big hunkin castle for the boss comin righ' up! Alright boys, let's leg it!" Cubot ordered 15 additional Egg Pawns to follow him on the bridge. Due to its fragility and the massive, metal weights of the robots, the planks of the bridge broke. "Aiiieeeee!" Cubot and 15 Egg Pawns swing their arms in the air as they fell all the way to the bottom with a clash. Orbot facepalms. "We're okay!" Cubot shouted from the fall. "Sort of."

"We'll have to modify the bridge too. Cubot will be fine. The rest of you." Orbot gave a commanding gestures to the Egg Pawns holding metal and glass to start building a new bridge of their design.

Luna tries to fly down to see the conditions of Cubot and other Egg Pawns and return to the ship for more information, but she was blocked off by an invisible force. She pushes through and through, but in the end she was pushed far back to the other side. She then felt that same demonic presence around the barrier.

"This isn't good. I have to make my retreat." She mystifies herself to a quick run and returns to Canterlot. She demystifies herself in front of her sister in her room.

"Did you find anything?" Celestia asked.

"I'm not sure where to begin." But she let on, talking about her travels and discoveries on the airship, the beings inside, the characters displayed by their personalities, intellect, and vague intentions, and a certain item.

"I see. We're still unsure of their exact purpose of the being here, but we know so far that they are harmless." The Princess of the Sun said, writing a letter to Twilight and her friends for a mission upon sunrise. Luna was about opened her mouth to explain more detail. She didn't mentioned the strange voice she encountered when she reported back, and it's hard to explain something if you don't know any detail about it. "Oh? Is there more you like to add?

"I…no. There isn't. That is all." She lied, though there isn't much to say from that experience. If she did, it would be unprofessional and out-of-character of her to say something like 'a mysterious voice terrified me, so I ran out of there' or 'the voice used some strange power to kick me out of the ship.'

"Very well, I'll send the mission to Twilight and her friends. If the beings are friendly and mean no harm, there wouldn't be much of a problem from them.

Luna was worried that she neglected mentioning her discovery. It was unknown to her. While the being was clearly evil, she didn't felt much of its aura from the others. She takes her leave to bring the moon for down for Celestia's rising sun.

* * *

 **This chapter buildup was not easy when I made this in the past. I had go through some research, play some cutscenes/episodes to refresh my memory, and proofread a 5,500+ words chapter just to make sure I didn't make any mistakes.**

 **When I said it was not easy, it's because I'm trying hard to make sure the official characters would actually be saying the lines I provide for them. Specifically Luna. I tried to be accurate as possible with her voice in my head saying this line or that line. Then it's been giving me a headache for a while, so I just let it go and be done with it. What's done is done. It's really hard writing for characters who are no longer evil.**

 **What Luna's doing is Astral Projection. It was inspired by the Sheep Talisman, based on the Year of the Sheep in Chinese calenders, in Jackie Chan Adventures, where it grants the user a ghost-like form with the ability to phase through objects and being able to interact with others' dreams. Just like Luna does in the episodes with the CMC. Though it's a bit tricky when using it on robots, so let's just say she's able to astrally and microscopically shrink herself to hack into Cubot's memory log with magic.**

 **The Nightmare Dreamscape is a land on the moon where Luna was banished. Further explained from the comics. There it is said that dwelling there will bring out your worst fears. Luckily Twilight and her friends triumphed, but there's more in the later issues.**

 **I feel like Yoda when writing down Zecora's lines.**

 **The hibernation process inside robots was inspired by a chapter in the Two Evil Scientists. You would have to read about 2,000 chapters to get to the one I've got my inspiration. Apparently it was also used to fill in a gaping plothole for E-123 Omega in Sonic 06 in case he has animal like the rest of the E-Series, and it makes a lot of sense.**

 **What was that voice? _Get out...Get out..._ I actually got that line from the H** **arvest Moon episode in Courage the Cowardly Dog. I really miss that show. Now on to the voice, even I don't know what it is to be honest. And it can be subjected to change in the future depending on the current situation.**

 **Instead of calling himself Mephiles the Dark, he just goes by Mephiles. Weird. He even refers to Shadow as his doppelganger. What could he mean by that? Stay tune.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire. Man I really love saying that line out loud.**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA. Created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro. Created by Lauren Faust for television.**  
 **Mod is an OC created by me.**


	5. Chapter 4: Confrontation

**Eggman's PA: Feel free to fill out a brief review down in the review box after your visit. Your opinions matter to us. Unless you didn't enjoy this fanfic, then we don't care.**

 **But really, if you wish to see more chapters, be sure to give a review. That helps out a lot.  
**

* * *

 _Confrontation_

"It took a while, but I finally manage to get it back together." Rainbow said to herself. She was thinking about last night while on her way to Fluttershy's cottage. "Those guys were really nice enough to help me get my house together by the time Scootaloo wakes up." She gleefully remembers how she impresses her devoted, sisterly fan. Rainbow uses this moment to relax, but at the same she's trying to keep herself awake.

"Grr. Not only did those guys in that red airship wrecked my house, they also ruined by good night sleep...and my Daring Doo collection." Again, she's doing whatever she can to keep herself from falling asleep while flying. "Twilight said that everypony must get together for this mission given by Princess Celestia, that includes Fluttershy, however reluctant she may be for this mission...or I could just fly over the Everfree...and beat those guys to a pulp...and finally get some...rest..." Rainbow slowly closed her eyes, drifting away from her course, and...causing her to crash onto Fluttershy's lawn.

Many of the animals were alerted by her collision. Only one figure went on towards the crash without fear but concern.

"...ainbow...Dash..." She can barely understand what's going on and wonders whether or not if this is a dream. Her eyelashes manage to dig out some of the dirt in her eyes and shaking off dirt in her ears. "Rainbow Dash, are you alright," a soft-spoken voice had said.

"Yeah," she gets up. "I've been better." Then she closes her eyes as she fell back into a hole of dirt she made, and would've stayed in that hole if her element wasn't loyalty. She has a job to do, so she got up and flapped her wings to shake off the dirt around her. "We have mission from Princess Celestia," she said to Fluttershy and reminding herself. "Twilight wants us to get together at the library."

"Oh okay," said Fluttershy. "Let me get ready then." She places the frightened animals back to their homes, gathered all her necessities, manages to fulfill Angel's every needs, locked the doors, and departs. Rainbow was about to use this opportunity to take nap around the fence, but Fluttershy was already packed up and ready by then, adding much irritation to Rainbow's restlessness.

"You'll be alongside me, Rainbow?" Knowing her, Rainbow would've given herself a headstart, but today's an exception."

"Yeah, I am." She covers her mouth as she yawns. Trying her best not to be rude and rowdy from her crankiness, Rainbow decides to converse with Fluttershy to keep herself awake. "I'll explain."

"Alright then," and the kind pegasus flies at a steady pace with Rainbow Dash en route to Twilight's Golden Oak Library. Little did they know, they were being watched. Two shadowy figures walked out from the Everfree Forest and approached the cottage. This startled some of the animals locked behind their doors.

Cake, check. A carrot cake, check. A carrot cake with cherry, check. Angel was happy to be at home by himself, and a locked door ensuring a secured privacy made things even better. And to top it off, Angel can do whatever he wanted all by himself, especially with a carrot cake with cherry ready to fill his stomach for days. However, every moment he wanted to do was ruined. He saw two shadows passed by the window. They went to the door and banged it several times. Angel gets into a fight-or-flight response as he hid the carrot cake with cherry somewhere out of sight. He then put on a military helmet out of nowhere, hid behind some pillows like trenches, and readies himself to whatever the outcome. The lock broke, and the door was knock down showing the two figures, one tall and one short, making their entrance. Angel readies his ammunition of…pillows, fruits, vegetables and plenty of house accessories against his targets.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the way to Ponyville.

"So, Rainbow. What caused you to be this tired?"

"It's about last night, Fluttershy."

 _"Eeep."_ Fluttershy mentally squeaked from remembering last night. Did the dragon cause her friend's distress? At the same somewhere within her consciousness, it is telling her to calm down knowing that is not what she feared. Someone from the higher authority must made her at ease. Calmly she would ask her friend as if it were normal day. "What happened?"

"That thing nearly tore my house down!" Rainbow angrily said. Her restlessness is getting the best of her.

"The...dragon?" said Fluttershy fearfully.

"No, it's not a dragon." _That's a relief._ "It was an airship; at least I knew it was an airship. Derpy's the one that got a firsthand experience with it, and I happened to watch by as it destroys my house!" Feeling she should cool off, Fluttershy changes the topic from the 'airship' to the cross-eyed, blonde pegasus.

"So how was Derpy involved?"

"Hmm." Rainbow was remembering and recovers from her restlessness, "According to her, a green light flashed out of nowhere."

"Oh? That was what happened yesterday?"

"Yeah, everypony awake must've have seen it. What happened was that after that flash, this giant, red airship appeared; and Derpy happened to be in its way."

"Oh, is she okay?"

"She's fine. She just bumped into one of their windows and got a glimpse of them, and at the same time they rammed right through my house!"

"Oh gosh! With Derpy along with it?"

"Yeah, I saw Derpy from the wreckage. The other pegasi working nightshift came and helped me fixed my house." She did not want to let Fluttershy know that Scootaloo was involved, so she didn't mention her in the conversation.

"That explains why you looked so tired."

"Yeah," Rainbow yawns, "I only got a few hours of sleep."

"At least it was nice of them to help." Not many pegasi she knew and didn't knew would help. The exception was the time when she helped Ponyville made a tornado and everypony was cheering. But that was then, nowadays they would still treat her as that shy, little pony, though things have been calmer and friendlier since Twilight came to Ponyville. Guess this must be the Magic of Friendship at work. "But still, you needed some rest," continuing back at the conversation to keep Rainbow at bay. "A lack of sleep can ruin your entire day."

Rainbow just grumbled with look saying, "Gee, tell me something I don't know."

It became a little awkward with a few seconds of silence for the both of them, but they did got into view of Ponyville. To break the silence, Fluttershy asks, "What was the mission given by Princess Celestia?

"Look, I'm not sure exactly. Twilight send a letter to the Princess after listening to Derpy's story. So she, Spike, and everypony are probably already there, with me picking you up." When Rainbow answered, they got through Ponyville and were right in front of Twilight's Library. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie are already there. "Hey Twi. Where's Spike?"

"He's out for the day. Spike needed some more rest after receiving that message. He didn't get enough sleep after what he wrote to Celestia."

"What was the message the Princess gave us?" asked Applejack.

"It's a mission. A diplomatic one to the beings that passed over the Everfree Forest." Twilight answered.

"Diplomatic?" asked Rainbow with her red, restless eyes. They were already walking their way to the trail. Once they were afraid of the forest, but with their many adventures they've gotten used to it.

"It's a non-aggressive approach when meeting with unknown entities. That means no violence or any attempts of a preemptive strike; always keep a friendly face and do whatever appeases the other."

Rainbow grumbles. Mentally she's pounding herself for not being allowed to beat those guys to a pulp.

"Oh cheer up Dashy!" Pinkie spouted next to Rainbow with a cupcake on her hoof. "It'll be a party! We'll have cupcakes, some cakes, maybe piñatas, and ooooh! Maybe even some chocolate. Everypony loves chocolate!"

"Pinkie darling," cried out Rarity. "We should be less assertive and more exquisite in our approach." She pulls out something like a fabric of some sort. No doubt made by her expertise. "This silver silk is quite the hard work. I was staying up all night working on it!"

"And you weren't even one bit tired?" questioned Rainbow.

"Of course not, dear! I'm always working hard to appease somepony with the highest taste."

"Heh," smirked Rainbow, "And what would happened if you meet somepony, someone, or something that is already silver colored?"

"Oh my stars. I have no idea what to say. That really is an interesting question."

"And what happens when he is named Silver?" asked the ever-so-random Pinkie.

"Oh that'll be dashing! I do hope he'll be a knight in shining armor, much better than that prince charming, Blueblood," Rarity said with disdain when mentioning his name.

"So are we all just giving these...guys some gifts?" complained Rainbow as they were traveling.

"Uhm well...uh." stuttered Applejack.

"You brought apples, didn't you?"

"Sure did."

"Why didn't anypony tell me about this?"

"We did," answered Twilight. "You left off before I could even state the mission. But don't worry about it, I didn't have anything to bring except a quill, ink, and paper."

"As gifts?"

"For notes."

"Oh."

"Well even if I knew if this was a gift-giving assignment, I wouldn't have much to give." said Fluttershy shyly.

"Hmph, I wouldn't have much to give anyways." grumbled Rainbow.

"And I hope it's not something physical." doubted Twilight.

"Well uh no...maybe...but I would like some apologies or some compensation for my house."

"That's what this mission is for. We give a friendly face, let them know we mean no harm, and then we come into an agreement for a peaceful resolution, right?"

"Oh alright." said Rainbow finally giving up this whole conversation. They then talk further about their thoughts about last night and what Derpy saw inside the airship. Their talks in the travel have already leaded them into the middle of the forest. What they've been seeing so far aside from the dangers they've been used to, such as the poison joke, is something quite messy. Trails of blood and sweat are seen more often along with some damaged trees and clawed ground.

"The wild animals must've have been fighting all last night." said the animal expert of the group. "They must have been terrified of the airship. Oh...if only I was there for them."

"Don't worry Fluttershy, we'll find a way once we can sort this out with the others over the Everfree. I just hope that the animals didn't get to them first." worried Twilight.

"Hey, isn't this the trail where we first saw that manticore." hopped Pinkie. She then went into a quick detail on how each of them tried to solve the problem that day. The group remembered it alright, without Pinkie needing to go far into detail. As if on que, the manticore appeared!

The girls stand back.

"We dwelt with this before, Fluttershy, you got this?" Twilight said.

"R-right."

To their surprise, the manticore had turned around.

"Wow Fluttershy. Just like that it stopped." said the surprised Applejack, assuming she did the Stare.

"But I didn't-" She gave a gasp. There are burned marks behind the Manticore's back. They could also hear some stomping and a monotonous chatters saying,

"Halt!" Orange, rounded, metallic creatures walking on legs, have blue eyes and blue teeth lighted up, and holding staves with electric edges. They're using them against the manticore.

"Halt where you are." said one of them. Manticore gave a swipe sending it to a rock. What shocked the Mane Six even more is that the creature broke into parts and pieces.

"What's going on?! What are they?" are questions going through their mind. The manticore swung its whole body and tail to knock out its surrounding perpetrators, sending some into trees.

"Retreat! Retreat!" They monotonously cried.

"Egg Pawns." the girls could hear another voice along with some unnatural stomping. "Hold your positions. Initiate Battle Mode." A red, also metallic, biped made its approach. It has an iron hand on its left, what seems to be like a cannon on the other, black metal feet, green lighted eyes, a label 102, and many other things the ponies have never seen in Equestria. They then saw another but shadowy figure at quick speed. It was standing on a branch of a nearby tree.

"We have a wild animal to bag." said the black creature.

The cannon was fired from the red one. Fluttershy covered her eyes, but the rest who were watching reassured her that it give the manticore a warning shot. The beast stood back, getting ready to fight. Just when it launches itself on the red one, the black creature on the branch quickly swiped its face with a kick before hiding somewhere in the forest. The manticore rubbed its head, roaring, and trying to find where that creature went. The red one then forwarded itself in front of the manticore and launch an uppercut with his iron-gripped d hand to send the animal up in the air. The black creature suddenly then appeared somersaulting above the aired manticore and gave it a dive kick to the ground. The surviving orange figures held onto their staves and surround themselves around the beast. The red one stepped forward and readies his cannon aimed at the head. It was then Fluttershy intervened.

"Wait please!" The cannon is aimed at her along with staffs surrounding her. "Please stop… whatever it is you're doing!" She spoke in tears. "Please, don't." The black one held out his hand, commanding the others to stand down. It then walked towards Fluttershy.

"You can speak?" it asked. What she saw, and what the other ponies could see, it was a black, spiked creature with gloves, shoes, green-eyes, and no mouth.

"Could this be the small black one Derpy saw?" thought Twilight.

"Y-yes." Fluttershy answered the spiked biped's question. The black creature stood there quick thinking. It turned around and walked away, the red one and the rest followed with the orange figures having the manticore tased by force. "Wait! What are you going to do to it?" asked the desperately worried Fluttershy.

"That would be up to my masters," the black creature said without turning around. "If you wish to learn more, you best follow." They then continued on with their path.

"Hold on." cried Twilight. "Who are you? What are you?"

"I am Mephiles."The black one said after turning around.

"I am unit E-102 Gamma." You may call me. Gamma."

* * *

 **This was a doozy when working on this chapter, especially the dialogue between the Mane Six. I already got Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Twilight's. The toughest choice was for the remainder. Like should they say this line? That line? How much screentime should they get? Then thanks to a friend's advice, I write it out simply and easily got it done.**

 **To summarize the chapter, Rainbow got Fluttershy to Ponyville to meet up, Angel faced unknown adversities, the Mane Six travel to the Everfree, get themselves into a conversation, watched a battle between the manticore and the newcomers, intercept, and the beings introduced themselves.**

 **Rarity on silvers. Hmmm. Dreams of an Absolution anyone?**

 **I've look through Google search on Sonic MLP fanfics, and I'm surprised no one ever brought up Gamma in MLP. Really? Sure he died in SA, but he's a robot. He can be repaired or had another produced in his place. Of course, the one you knew back at SA is totally dead. This is just another version built, with no memory of SA whatsoever.**

 **They introduced themselves, but what are they? What is the purpose of being here? And why did they subjugate an innocent (in Fluttershy's eyes) manticore? Stay tune.**

 **I love saying this line, even if Eggman isn't in this chapter.**  
 ** _Long Live the Eggman Empire_ **

**Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA. Created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro. Created by Lauren Faust for television.  
**


	6. Chapter 5: Heartless Colleague

_Heartless Colleague_

"Can you talk? How can you speak? Do you have a mouth? If so, how do you eat? Can you smile without a mouth? Wait a minute, is that even possible to smile without a mouth?" Pinkie asked many questions quickly and randomly to Mephiles on regards to his mouthless muzzle. The subject latter remain silent while guiding their journey.

"What are you anyways?" Rainbow asked this time. Again, Mephiles remains silent. She turns to the other who introduced himself. "Gamma, care to tell us what is he?" The heavily armored, red being turns its head the other way to face the ponies while walking. This sort of creep them out. He made a 'whirring' sound to face them and he didn't seem to mind twisting his neck. To make it worse, his reply was monotonously unnatural.

"Does not compute."

"Wait what?" The other ponies are also bewildered by his speech and tone. Twilight may be the only who could understand him, though even she would admit that this isn't something you often would hear from a being in Equestria; which neither Gamma nor Mephiles are likely from.

"Insufficient data." He positioned his head to face forward, leaving behind the rainbow mare in question.

"O..kay?" not really understanding his terminology.

"Data on Mephiles is limited and confidential."

"Ugh. In plain language?" whined the facehoofed Rainbow.

"I have just met him," Gamma turned his whole body towards the ponies. "Therefore I know next to nothing of the organic, Mephiles. Other than I am to follow his commands as I do to my masters."

"You don't know? Did you even ask?" Gamma was silent for a few seconds. He then turns towards Mephiles for guidance.

"Inquiry. Should subjects be given information to satisfy their curiosity?"

"Negative. You will belay that." Mephiles finally spoke.

"Confirmed and complied as ordered, then it remains confidential and classified." Gamma said to the ponies. This answer dissatisfies them and also bewildered by how Gamma talks. What is Gamma anyways, and why does he talk like that?

"He's a robot," Mephiles turn towards the equines, almost as if he could read their minds. "And that's all you need to know," he finishes off before going back to his posture. When he spoke, the girls find it hard to tell whether or not he's angry. Without a mouth, it's hard to tell from his expression. Just that he has a straight look on his face, judging by the eyes.

"A robot? I never heard of a robot." Fluttershy said. Knowing her, this is something she would ponder over with her friends. "Have you girls heard of one?" she faces Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow. All of them shook their heads in reply. If there's anything unknown to them, they would turn to the bookworm of the group, "Twilight?"

"Never. I have never heard of anything of a robot in my books; this is the first time I have heard of one."

"Robot." Gamma said. "By definition, a machine primed to serve its maker and their associates."

"A machine. With the ability to serve and thus capable of doing what a living being can do. Then that makes you an automaton, correct?" Twilight said with her analysis.

"Affirmative." Gamma responded with astuteness. While Twilight understands, the rest are having trouble getting through his speech patterns.

"Well you auto-whatever-you're-called sure do like talking fancy." Applejack said. "What about these guys?" She points her hoof to the beings dubbed as Egg Pawns. "Are they machines too?

"Positive," was Gamma's answer. The Egg Pawns currently have the manticore under their control with their taser staves. An action Fluttershy disapproves of seeing how the manticore is in pain from them. She listens to the conversations with Gamma to learn more on their intentions with the animal.

"Um…okay. Rarity?" Applejack turned to her and whispered. "Does your sewing machine talks like that?"

"Oh heavens no!" cried the unicorn. "All they ever do is give off a 'rrrrrr' sound.

"I thought so too," Applejack said in response, seeing how Gamma is also making them when he turns his head around. "But they also talk too? Now that'd be just weird, like having a tractor or sewing machines do some talking for you."

"Twilight darling," Rarity asked and whom everypony turned to. "You said they were…au-to-ma-tone?" She tried to enunciate.

"Automatons. They are machined beings capable of doing things a living being can do. But so far in Equestria, we've been able to use to magic to keep them alive and running and-"

"Magic. Equestria?" Gamma was eavesdropping on them.

"Equestria is a land where we're on and magic is what unicorns to do perform tasks."

"Magic. From our definitions, magic are mere tricks used to deceive its audiences for entertainment purposes. Unicorns…" Gamma paused to look and analyze the yellow and cyan-colored mares with wings, "and pegasi are subjects of mythology."

"Well here in Equestria, we are real and so is magic, and there's more to magic than just entertainment. Watch." Twilight levitated a few pebbles on their way to show the red automaton and the dark being.

"Intriguing." Gamma responded and at the same time analyzed. Inside him, scanners indicate strange energy emitting from the unicorn's horn to lift the rocks.

"We can also use to our magic to make barriers and teleport." She then exemplify by creating a barrier around herself and teleporting outside of it.

"Fascinating." Gamma wanting to learn more of magic in Equestria.

"It's almost like how Chaos energy functions." Mephiles said coldly while rubbing his muzzle.

"Chaos? Wait what?!" cried Rainbow. She was about to charge into Mephiles to pin and interrogate him. Thankfully, Twilight pulled her back with her levitation magic.

"Wait! Hold on for a moment!" Rainbow struggles but gives up as Twilight gathered all the ponies into a discussion. Gamma, Mephiles and Egg Pawns waited for them.

"He just mentioned Chaos." Rainbow complained to the group. "Discord has got to be involved!...Somehow."

"As crazy it sounds, I'll have to agree with Rainbow here." Rarity said.

"Uh-huh." Applejack firmly states. Pinkie nodded in agreement.

"Well we only just met." Twilight reminded. "And if Discord was somehow involved, the princesses would've let us know." Of course the said Discord is currently imprisoned in stone in Canterlot. If anything happened, Princess Celestia would've let them know and have them prepare their Elements of Harmony. But this time, the mission is an act of diplomacy to the foreign newcomers.

"Should we ask?" Fluttershy asked. The ponies stared at her, "I mean. It doesn't hurt to ask, right?" They all turned to the newcomers. Mephiles had his arms crossed, almost vaguely based on someone who would also have this habit, Gamma was just standing next to him like a statue, and the Egg Pawns so far hasn't done much to tase the manticore to keep it under control (much to Fluttershy's satisfaction).

"Are you ready?" Mephiles questioned. "I could just leave you here and never inform my masters of our encounters." Rainbow got a little enraged from that remark, but she keeps her restlessness under control now that her friends are around.

"Nah, we're good. Just one thing." She had her eyes sternly focused on the dark being. "Have you guys heard of Discord?"

"Discord, a noun or a verb?"

"Discord," Gamma defines, "a state of chaos, havoc, and disharmony or an act of creating chaos, havoc, and disharmony."

"Ugh." Rainbow facehoofed. "They can't be that eggheaded," she whispered to herself.

"No." said Twilight. "More like a being capable of these things." Mephiles had to pause for a few seconds before responding.

"You'll have to be more specific."

"Well he's a draconequus and…"

"The meanest, meanie ever!" Pinkie randomly appeared in front of Mephiles who somehow looked unsurprised by her approach. "He'll make your world upside down…" she slowly crawls away.

"Draconequus…hmmm." Mephiles was rubbing his chin in thought from this new terminology, "Gamma?"

"No dictionary confirms the term 'draconequus'. But judging from its context, it can mean a mixture of a 'dragon' and a 'horse'."

"Then the answer is no." Mephiles turned to the ponies.

"Wait, you don't know?" complained Dash. Mephiles just moved on and everyone had to follow without question.

"Even in our glossaries, no creature called a draconequus can be found." Gamma said to assure them. "However, if you're referring to creature that is a mixture of animals, we would classified them as a chimera."

"At least that sorts things out." Twilight said reassuringly. "They may not have Discord, but at least they have chimeras."

"Negative. Chimeras are subjects to mythology." He then remembers from what the lavender unicorn said earlier about mythology and reality in Equestria. "Our worldview mythology. This is world is need of further study, investigation, and research."

"Yes, just as we would like to learn much from you."

"Like what are you going to do with the manticore?" Fluttershy said with concern. "You're not going to anything bad to it, are you?"

"By bad, you mean cause harm or ultimately euthanize it?"

"Eeep! Euthanize it?!" said the frightened, pegasus. This shocking news is almost enough to cause her a heart attack.

"Unlikely. A manticore is a creature of legend in our world." continued Gamma. "Our masters are more likely going study it, and it goes against logic to terminate an organic of incredibility."

"Then what's that on your arm? Isn't that a cannon?" Rainbow jumped in, seeing that this is something Pinkie carries.

"Affirmative, however, it was supposed to knock it out. No lethal ammunition was required."

"Oh okay," relieved Fluttershy. "But what are they doing to it?" pointing to the Egg Pawns. She's trying to understand what the staves did to stop the manticore from being further volatile.

"What are these things anyways?" Rainbow flew over to the Egg Pawns to examine their weaponry. The Egg Pawns just looked at each other with their blue eyes, not sure what to make of their course of action other than deliver the beast to base. They stood still while a blue pegasus was observing their staves. She made a poke on their tips.

"Caution: taser staves contain 50,000 volts," Gamma warned. It was already too late. The staves gave her a shocking surprise. "But rest assured," he monotonously continued on, "The staves are not designed to be lethal, only to subdue the subject from further aggression."

"It's no biggy," Rainbow said while shaking off the electric shock. "Pegasus play with lightning all the time," feeling that they may be no challenge at all if they pick a fight against her. However this isn't the case.

"An activity deemed inadvisable. Each lightning bolt generates an estimate power of 1.21 gigawatt; powerful enough to cause permanent damages to the body when it strikes on living tissue."

"Well, we do it all the time when we're managing the weather."

"Managing? Pegasus can control the weather system?"

"Well, yeah."

"The pegasi have the power of atmokinesis. Interesting."

"The atmo-what-now?"

"This information will be proven resourceful for my masters to learn from this world."

"What are your masters like?" Twilight asked.

"That remains to be seen." Gamma said to remain confidential.

"Do they happen to be automatons?"

"Negative, they're not robots."

"Then what about him?" Pinkie hopped while following Mephiles. "You said he's organic and…Twilight, what's organic?

"Basically a living being."

"Yeah, what is he?" Pinkie was eager to know. Mephiles stopped and stared menacingly at Pinkie. Everypony was frightened by his approach and became cautious of him. It looks as if he could strike at any given moment.

"I am…" he clutched his fists. "Nobody." He then walked passed Pinkie, shrug her off like she didn't exist, and continued on.

"Awww." Her mane became flattened, and then it puffed back up. "Wait, does that mean that-"

"Pinkie," Twilight pulled her, "That's enough. I think we've asked plenty of questions for today."

"But still," Fluttershy budge in, "that's a pretty harsh thing to say." She would say in her sad tone. "To refer to yourself as a nobody…"

"We'll know that this isn't the case, Fluttershy." Twilight stated. "At least it shouldn't be. Somehow..."

* * *

 **I had have fun playing with their dialogue between the robotic and the organic with Gamma and the Mane Six.**

 **Discord is currently imprisoned in stone in this fic. Meaning that this is set somewhere before Keep Calm and Flutter On as Twilight isn't an Alicorn yet. I was going to have them ask about the nature of Chaos, but then Fluttershy is too worried about the Manticore, so I guess they forget when they switched topics from** **draconequus to manticores.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire.**

 **Eggman Empire of Equestria is a nonprofit, fan-based literature.**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust.**


	7. Chapter 6: Project Mephiles

**Basically this is the backstory of the _EEE_ version of Mephiles, who is not 100% like the one in Sonic 06.**

* * *

 _Project Mephiles_

Somewhere in an unreal world...

"Let's give it your best shot!" The Egg Pawns are paralyzed. Their bodies were phased through by a blue blur, and then they explode.

"Heh heh." The blue blur would let out in a cocky attitude. "C'mon, step it up!"

In response to his boasting, Hunters, robotic grunts made by GUN, appeared out of nowhere and began chasing him. They were able to catch up with him with their newly added jet rockets to match his speed. Despite these upgrade however…

"You're too slow." He made a breakthrough in the sound barrier with a Sonic Boost and the Hunters exploded, leaving behind trails of Chaos Drives. "Heh heh. Uh oh…"

The F-T6 Big Foot or simply Big Foot, another mech made by GUN and piloted by a human soldier, made its approach. It was the same machine the blue hedgehog had face in his escape from the city. It opened its shoulders to launch missiles against the target. The hedgehog jumped and dodged through the barrage. When he got close, Big Foot fired a Gatling. Sonic had to run past the bullets to perform a jump and aimed the cockpit with a homing attack, leaving the mech out of commission and the pilot injured.

"It's that all you got?" Sonic cried out. His answer came with a big robot with a large hammer, dubbed by the Doctor as the Egg Hammer, appearing out of nowhere from the sky. The blue blur jump and did homing attacks to it, but it didn't budge. He tried speed boosting towards it, but he ended up getting damaged and began losing all his rings.

"Oh no! I'm done for!" He would cry out while lying on the floor. And within matters of seconds, the hammer flattens him.

Light infantry:  
Egg Pawns performance against the hedgehog: Rank E  
GUN Hunters performance against the hedgehog: Rank D

Heavy infantry:  
F-T6 Big Foot performance against the hedgehog: Rank D  
Egg Hammer performance against the hedgehog: Rank A

Overall performance against the hedgehog: Rank C

Sonic simulation ended. End transmission.

* * *

"Don't bother playing with that thing." Eggman said to the activator of the simulation room within the Egg Carrier. "It always has that same result, failure." He let out a clutched fist, "especially when it comes to actual performance with that annoying pest." The player of that simulation was Mod, former GUN scientist and now-defector/newcomer to the Eggman Empire. He was testing out both of Eggman's infantry and also that of GUN. If neither of them could outlast the rodent, he pulled out the heavy machines from each faction with one of Eggman's succeeding ahead of the government military's.

"But the Egg Hammer performed flawlessly," the former GUN scientist remarked. "If this robot can finish off Sonic, he would've been gone long ago." He had looked into the unit's history knowing that the Egg Hammer had been built long before his arrival into the Egg Carrier.

"Watch this," the egg-sized scientist pressed a red button with the insignia of a particular echidna. The simulation reactivates with Sonic confronting the Egg Hammer again, but this time with an ally.

"I got this." The red echidna pounded his knuckles and dashed towards the giant robot. The robot smashes his hammer on the ground to create an earthquake. This tipped off the balance in the surrounding, but this didn't bother Knuckles at all. He was gliding in the air, pulled his arm, punch straight through the robot's head, and decapitating it. The robot got an E rank in its performance against Sonic and Knuckles.

"Like I said; failures," the fat, mad scientist retorted.

"Indeed," the middle-aged scientist in white remarked while pushing back his glasses with his middle finger. "It has been on both our parts," recalling on how GUN made attempts against the hedgehog and his associates when they were once framed. "And we spent millions of tax dollars just to apprehend him and his friends."

"You and your GUN create mediocre mechs." Eggman said insinuating an insult to the new accomplice.

"Hmph, like you could do any better." Mod scorned with arms folded. "At least we managed to have him cornered and taken into custody. Something you couldn't at least have accomplished."

"And it cost millions just to catch one hedgehog? Bah, I can do the same thing, but," Eggman lifted a finger, "without having to put all that extra cost." He had the other hand behind his back with the intent of showing the GUN defector how he makes his own machines.

"Oh, and that will be?"

"Behold." The egg-sized scientist let out his other hand to show files, blueprints, and schematics of an unused model for the Eggman Empire, the Egg Gunner.

"They look just like our Hunters," the man in white said browsing through the designs. "Have you been mimicking us?"

"If you want learn from your mistakes and correct them, you first had to learn from your enemies." Eggman replied. "And yes, I have been creating designs based on your flawed creations." He began downloading the schematics in the simulation. Mod looked further on its capabilities.

"I do see that they have the capacity of being given additional weaponry such as plasma, laser fire, and/or heavy missile support. Our Hunters are equipped with semi-auto arms and the additional armament is limited only to a riot shield; this one can have automatic fire and missile launchers simultaneously on each arm."

"Yes, and while your 'Hunters' have rocket jets to catch up with Sonic, they have to remain stationary to take aim. My Gunners on the other hand," Eggman compared, "have been given a more pragmatic approach; they can fire when in flight."

"That would suffice, if we're to encounter a primitive culture that is," Mod said with the schematics downloaded and settings readjusted in the simulation. It created a scenario where the Egg Gunners are faced up against cavemen equipped with rocks and clubs. The virtual cavemen couldn't reach their targets with their clubs when the robots take flight. Even if they were to throw their rocks and clubs as projectiles, their effort will remain fruitless as the robots were equipped with rocket jets designed to catch up to Sonic. Gunners then circled the cavemen and slaughtered them, giving itself a performance of Rank A from the simulation machine.

"Even in contemporary times," Eggman pointed out and rearranging the setting from primitive to modern, "these machines can achieve just as much." In it, the Gunners fought against GUN soldiers. With their fast mobility, the soldiers have a hard time taking aim against their adversaries. As the machines dodged bullets, the Gunners moved in closer for the kill. "Even when they're covered, these GUN are no match for my robots." One scenario showed the Gunners flying past soldiers covered in trenches and fired from behind. Another had soldiers taking cover in a bunker. All the Gunners had to do was fire their missiles semi-automatically to bring the building down and lure out its denizens for the slaughter.

"An excellent weapon of war," complimented Mod.

"Yes, they will serve as infantry to the Eggman Empire and retire the Egg Pawns, who are better suited in doing labor, guard duty, and cannon fodder."

"Indeed."

"Receiving transmission." A signal from a nearby intercom alerted, "from units: Cubot & Orbot."

"Patch them through." Eggman ordered. "Report."

"Houston! We have a problem!" Cubot shouted.

"Oh pipe down, will you!" Orbot pushed Cubot aside to send the message himself. "We seem to have had a little trouble here at the castle here, boss. We tried to reconstruct it into a fortress of your desire, but some of the workers went missing."

"Missing?!" Eggman cried out in surprise and frustration of his incompetent automatons.

"Well, the Egg Pawns did gather their building materials, but while fixing the interiors they disappeared."

"Something attacked us?"

"Well, no. The missing Egg Pawns happened to be alright. We've been tracing their signals and it shows that they've been dislocated to different areas of the castle. This place could be filled with traps, and at the same time the place is falling apart with Egg Pawns in greater need of repairs."

"Grr. Why must I do things myself?" Eggman grumbled to himself. "Assistance is on their way," he said out loud to the intercom. He then ordered Mod, "Go take care of the castle."

"This is…somewhat beneath me." But the GUN deserter complied. "A little field research shouldn't be much of a problem, with the whole place filled with traps and falling debris," sarcastically speaking.

"Just one thing," Eggman said before the turncoat scientist could step outside the automatic door and leave the Egg Carrier for the ancient castle. He's been meaning to ask ever since he saw what his assistant looks like. "What is Mephiles. Why does he look like-?"

"Shadow," continued the former GUN scientist. "Mephiles is a weapon bio-engineered by GUN, designed to eliminate both hedgehogs, Sonic and Shadow."

"Hmm?!" Eggman was confounded and flabbergasted. Sonic has saved the day countless times enough to be Earth's hero and Shadow is a government agent, why would GUN want them both eliminated?

"Back when he was framed, Sonic was shown to be capable of dismantling the military all by himself, just as Shadow did when he was unleashed." Mod reminded events of Sonic's arrest, the incidents that had happened in Prison Island thereafter, and concluding with the Space Colony Ark. "Even though Sonic was the hero of the day, the leaders of the United Federation feared his potential of becoming a threat again. With Shadow supposedly gone, the Commander was relieved and went on to propose the President in signing a bill, which will allow GUN to create countermeasures against the hedgehog should he go rogue. This gives us an opportunity to develop new a weapon at good pace, and it was enlightening." He pushes back his horn-rimmed glasses, "looking through research notes used to create Project Shadow and have it recreated under another name, Project Mephiles."

"Mephiles, what kind of name is that." Eggman was having that same déjà vu feeling whenever he hears that name when he first saw Mephiles bearing resemblance to Shadow.

"I didn't come up with the name," the defector said with a shrug. "One of the developers went to Soleanna for vacation and study their culture in his spare time. There they have this mythology of a sun god being called Solaris whom they worship and celebrate in their festivals. According to their tradition, the sun god was comprised of two entities, Iblis and Mephiles; Iblis was the raw power and Mephiles was its cunning mind. After his vacation, he thought the name Mephiles was fitting due to the nature of the Project and in contrast to Shadow's raw power."

"The government plotting against Sonic in fear." Eggman understanding this conspiracy on GUN's part. "And you were using the schematics for Project Shadow to create Mephiles?"

"If it was one the thing that can match the hedgehog, it would be something Gerald Robotnik had created. But while we have the composition and the designs laid out-"

"You were missing the fundamental component that made Project Shadow possible," Eggman knows where this is going. "You needed the blood of the Black Arms..."

"That's where they come in with their attack on Westopolis. During their invasion, we recovered from their corpses blood samples and found them compatible with Project Mephiles just as it did with Shadow. At the same time however, the Central Information Agency confirmed reports of Shadow alive and in action within the city. The Commander suddenly out of rage," and much to the weapons researcher's surprise, "demanded that the weapon be developed right away and have it programmed to designate Shadow as the primary target with Sonic as secondary whenever ordered. Our production with Project Mephiles was rushed, so we haven't had the time to run tests or research the blood samples on the abnormal differences from the original used in Project Shadow."

"But Mephiles came through," seeing as how he came to be.

"Indeed he did, though we were expecting to have another copy of Shadow with the same color scheme and then paint him to distinct him from the original. Turns out we didn't need to thanks to impetuous results," confirming the differences between Mephiles and Shadow from the color of the eyes and spikes and lacking a mouth. "Therefore, it is more fitting to give him a title similar to the Ultimate Lifeform: Mephiles, the Incomplete Lifeform, the Imperfect One, or rather, Mephiles the Imperfect."

"Yes, and by the time Mephiles was created," Eggman guess, "Shadow had already saved the day and killed Black Doom and the rest of the black aliens."

"And the Commander recruited him as a GUN agent," the defecting scientist said in disbelief. "Leaving our work wasted and almost in shambles."

"Almost?"

"Originally, the Commander wanted to terminate Project Mephiles and delete any info regarding it to avoid any inconsistent embarrassment. I didn't want our work go to waste, so I told him of the possibilities of Mephiles being more of an asset than a liability. Despite his appearances and a rushed production, he has shown to be just as capable as the Ultimate Lifeform. The Commander agreed to have him as my research assistant instead, but in return no one, especially Shadow, is to know of Mephiles or see him."

"What about his programming," Eggman asked. "The one targeting Shadow as primary and Sonic whenever ordered?"

"The Commander wanted it deleted. I complied by making it look like he won't attack an image of Shadow or enraged by any mention of him."

"You lied?"

"He is a weapon, and I rather have him built as a one than to have Mephiles be a mere lab rat. His purpose is to eliminate both hedgehogs and I'm willing to see it through. Of course," Mod added with heavy cynicism, "the Commander had doubts of my claim, so he had agents watching our every move to make sure we keep it under control and our mouths shut; lest our lives be compromised."

"Seems like a good time to quit if you ask me," Eggman said empathically. "Then utilize your talents to your own purpose and do whatever you want regardless of what society think. Society can think what's best for itself, but we scientists know what's best for it."

"Admittedly," Mod agreed, "that was the approach I was looking for, but there are three problems. One is that the government is the one providing funds and resources for my projects and I can't exploit them on my own even with my own savings. Two, if I do announce that I'm quitting, and I said this before, they'll terminate my contract. In other words, they'll end my life. Three, if I do survived their termination; they'll blacklist and hunt me down and thus preventing me from doing any work done while I'm on the run."

"But didn't you say you wanted to your work done easily under me more so than come here for protection." Eggman remembered his wordings upon realignment."

"I did. You got me; guilty as charged," the GUN traitor played around. "Though honestly, it's frustrating to be watched over all the time. This in turn hinders my performance when doing my research on further weapons development. My work cannot be done and the agents threaten me with death should they be suspicious or whenever I go against their 'orders.' So when we were sent to capture your robots, I have to come up with a ruse that a whole team of agents is needed for the potential of the robots being armed and dangerous. They fell for that, and I shot them in space and align myself to you."

"But what about Mephiles?" Eggman asked. "What does he gain from this?"

"The elimination of hedgehogs Sonic and Shadow, of course. That was his original programming," Mod reminded. "It's very unlikely he'll be able to do that while we're under GUN even in top secrecy."

"But what does HE gain from this?" The ruler of the Eggman Empire repeated.

"For him? Hmm, from what Mephiles said about himself upon learning his creation and purpose," the researcher interpreted," as long as either Shadow or Sonic is alive, he is a nobody. He probably didn't like the idea of being an Incomplete Lifeform, so he's Mephiles the Nobody in his mind. But if either one of the hedgehogs is eliminated, he'll be able to take their place and form an identity from there.

"Green with envy it seems." Eggman commented.

"Mephiles the Green is more like it," Mod joked. "After all, he does have green eyes." A signal alarmed nearby showing a video camera of one of their scouting parties returning with more animals. "My time is up. Guess that means I'll be doing field research on the castle. And while I'm up there, you got more animals to deal with." Mod said from seeing Mephiles, Gamma, and Egg Pawns with a lion-like beast and six colorful horses through the camera.

"Yes, hopefully they'll be less troublesome than that rabbit the robots have caught along with bags full of small animals," Eggman said.

"I do hope our talks have been worthwhile." Mod let out as a finish to the conversation.

"It has; something worth thinking over." By the time Mod steps out the automatic door, their conversation has Eggman thinking. "Mephiles is almost like Metal in every way, but in this parallel," he compared, "his competition is with Shadow. Perhaps their recruitment can be useful after all once I'm done with world...Still, I don't trust them." Eggman then readies his schemes on what do to with the scouting party's arrival.

Meanwhile as Mod steps out of the door, he passes by the vacant room he recently turned into his research facility. From there, an echo came, heard only to Mod.

"...!"

"We have intruders in your plane of work?" Mod asks the demonic sound.

"…!"

"Well you managed to scare her off. If she didn't see your face, it won't be much of an interference."

"….!"

"Another one came?"

"….!"

"I see."

"….!".

"If that's the case, they will be dealt with...with permanent consequences." He then moved on to his next objective. He was about to take a vehicle that can transport between inside and outside of the Egg Carrier, but then he remembers seeing a platform with similar purposes. "The robots," referring to Cubot and Orbot, "did say this also lead to the outside, so why does he need this cable car if there's an elevator for that?" He steps on platform, then his feet became stuck onto it. "What the-" he struggles to get off but to of no avail. The platform began floating upwards.

"For your safety," a recording of Eggman responded. "You are now bolted to this elevator. That way you'll be less concerned of broken bones and more so on nausea and vomiting. Please use the cable car instead, since this platform is designed for robots."

"Damn you-Egg-m-a-a-a!" Mod begins to scream as the elevator spins him around and around, sending him up to outside the Egg Carrier.

"If you went to the elevator without warning," the PA continued, "do know that this probably your fault for setting foot on it. If you're Sonic and his disgusting friends, then it is your fault for coming to the Egg Carrier in the first place. If you're neither a robot or a hedgehog, THEN YOU'RE A COMPLETE IDIOT!"

* * *

 **I was frequently asked in the past if Sonic will ever make an appearance in the _EEE,_ and this is as far as I can go. As a holographic projection in the simulation room used as target practice for Eggman's machine army. I'm still not telling whether Sonic and his friends would appear or not. They may appear sooner; they may be appear at the near end; they may not appear at all. **

**The Egg Hammer was that giant robot used in Sonic Heroes. Only power characters or a Team Blast can damage them. Speed characters like Sonic can't do any damage to it other than trip him.**

 **The Egg Gunners are the basic, robotic minions in Sonic 06. Since the events of that game never occurred, the Egg Gunners were never used...until now. Gameplay wise, they're just cannon fodder. If applied realistically like in the cutscenes, it'll be something else.**

 **One thing frustrating when making this chapter is that it involves a government conspiracy, and I hate conspiracies. Always pestering around with hypotheses and theories on whether the government is involved in an incident or some secret, Illuminati-like group is causing this. It keeps you thinking, and I don't want to think too much since it doesn't involve me in anyway. Even if the conspiracy is true, it doesn't affect me from doing what I enjoy, which is to play video games, study histories, and write Sonic MLP stuff.**

 **I had to be careful to make sure all that top secret stuff would make sense to both Eggman and the readers, so it was tough making sure I didn't make any loopholes.**

 **Mod, some boring OC I made-up for convenience, explains how Mephiles came to be. He is basically like a clone copy of Shadow created by GUN scientists as a weapon against Sonic and Shadow just in case they do something stupid. As a product by GUN, he has the same abilities as Shadow would have such as Chaos Control, Spear, and skates. So he has none of those darkness powers and time traveling stuff like he has in 06. This is just another version of him as his goal is similar to Metal Sonic**

 **After the OC begins to frustrate me with all that top secret, government nonsense, I thought it'll be fun to punish him with the spinning elevator that was satirized in the Sonic Shorts.** **I still can't believe it took almost 15 years for fans to make fun of that elevator.**

 **Now we know that Eggman has done something to Angel Bunny, but what becomes of him? And what plans does Eggman have when he meets the Mane Six? Stay tune for more.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire.**

 **Eggman Empire of Equestria is a nonprofit, fan-based literature.** **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust.**  
 **Mod is an OC created by me.**


	8. Chapter 7: Militant Missionary

**The chapter title is named after a track from the Sonic Adventure OST. At first you wouldn't think this would be a fitting title, but if you remember from Sun Tzu, "All warfare is based on deception."**

* * *

 _Militant Missionary_

"Was the castle really abandoned?" Orbot asked Cubot. They were waiting by a bridge that the Egg Pawns recently constructed right next to the elevator tube they had built. Their bridge was there to replace the flimsy, planked one that was used earlier before Cubot and a squad of Egg Pawns accidentally broke it, due to their heavy construct. The new version is designed as a hallway with a metallic exterior for protection, strong interior for stability, and has a glass view to look from the sides. It also has a built-in self-destruct sequence in case there are hostile forces approaching the soon-to-be Eggman's castle. So far, no enemies have approached the Eggman Empire as of yet. Now the labor workers of the Empire have to deal with trap doors and false walls that dislocated their positions and falling debris that most likely damaged their functional programming.

"We didn't meet up with anyone over there, but man oh man," said Cubot sounding like a generic henchman who had lost in a fight against a superhero in a story. Granted, while the robotic duos were expendable, they have yet to experience combat. "That castle sure did a number on us."

"I know," Orbot said agreeingly in the conversation. "It's like someone set up those traps as defense for something of value, like a tomb of someone important; or that someone's trying to prank us."

"Well whatever it is," Cubot complained. "They got nothing! Nothing but falling rocks and some boring, old stuff."

"Indeed, nothing worth of value for the Doctor, unless if he likes old books and fragile decorations," said Orbot. "But the falling rocks have left the Egg Pawns incapacitated and the traps have disoriented them."

"Huh," Cubot, now lacking in his attention circuits from the conversation with Orbot, began scanning at their surroundings in broad daylight. "Did we really need that elevator tube?" apparently moving away the topic of the abandoned castle's traps.

"Oh whatever do you mean?" Orbot asked.

"Cuz there's right bunch of stairs right next to us and our bridge."

"Did the Egg Pawns sculpt them?" Orbot seeing that the stairs are made from stone and leads to the bottom of the canyon where the Egg Carrier is stationed. "They couldn't have. They were given materials and equipment to construct both the elevator tube and the bridge."

"Maybe it was already there?"

"Maybe, but if that was the case, wouldn't the Egg Pawns have warn us that they spotted the stairs?"

"Well it was kinda foggy when they were building, and we didn't see any staircases back when we were parking the Egg Carrier in this canyon."

"Hmm, perhaps you are right. After all, had we spotted the stairs while descending, we would have the Egg Pawns to confirm it."

"Yeah, wonder what kind of help we're getting."

"I did ask for assistance. Do you think the doctor's going to help or Mod will?" As if on cue, the scientist in white had popped out from the elevator tube next to the bridge. The Egg Pawns had built the tube from the bottom of the canyon where the Egg Carrier resides. The former, GUN Scientist was apparently sick from an earlier transport when leaving the Egg Carrier.

"Oh my. You didn't took the cable car." said the somewhat embarrassed Orbot. Cubot is snickering behind on how the new recruit had to use the spinning platform and go through Eggman's ridiculously insulting PAs.

"You stated," Mod grumbled. "That the elevator was also used to get out of the vessel." He began to raise his voice in anger, "So why in the hell did he leave it operational when he already has that damned cable car?!"

"Idk." Cubot stated in a different tone, probably one from an internet meme. "He built the Egg Carrier long before he built us." The man in white began walking closer towards him. "Hey! At least we didn't make this tube to spin round and round."

"Then tell me this, why did the doctor built you in the first place?"

"IDK, why you ask that?"

"To be an expendable, worthless piece of junk!" Mod grabs Cubot, lifts him up overhead, and walks to the edge of the cliff with him.

"Hey, lemme go!" Cubot cried out while he struggled.

"Get off of him, you brute!" Orbot tried to fight the GUN turnout but to no avail.

"That's what you machines are good for." continued Mod while ignoring the robotic duos' pleas. "Expendable tools. And when you're all used up, we'll have another take your place with better efficiency."

"Then about what Mephiles." Orbot said out of random. While it is out of random, Cubot and Orbot weren't informed of Mephile's origin. They didn't really got to know whether if he's naturally a hedgehog or synthetically created.

"What about him?" Mod groundly retorted. Orbot points to the upcoming scouting party composed of Mephiles, E-102 Gamma, and Egg Pawns with taser staves. They've held under captivity a large lion-like beast with a spiked tail and wings. If one were to recall from mythologies, the being fits the description of a manticore. But it also seems that the scouting party is accompanied by beings that don't require being tased. From what Cubot, Orbot, and Mod see, they brought along six additional equines. Two of them are winged like pegasus, two have horns like a unicorn, and two are plain horses. Judging by the size of the equines, who are smaller than Mod (about 5'9) but somewhere as tall as Cubot and Orbot, the horses are ponies. Maybe they're as tall of the adversaries of the Eggman Empire as they're shown to reach the height of Mephiles (at height 3'3). "Ah, you've arrived." Mod said with unnatural calmness, dropping Cubot away from the cliff and onto nearby ground. Mephiles bowed in the presence of his guardian and sponsor.

* * *

 _"Derpy said there were five."_ Twilight said in thought while examining the beings. The ponies see the two metallic beings described beforehand: one yellow and cubed; the other red and orbed. They both display blue eyes and teeth, arms, but don't seem to have any legs. They seemed to have the ability to float but without wings. _"Is it because of magic? No, it can't be."_ According to Gamma, magic is nonexistent where they're from. Derpy also had mentioned that they were three additional ones in red, black, and white; with Gamma in red, Mephiles in black, and the bipedal being in white. Gamma stated that he just met Mephiles, so he couldn't be the one seen by Derpy. From what she's sees in the one in white, it's hard to describe. There are plenty of bipedal beings in the creatures glossary, and none of them fits his being. Though one can assume, judging by his attire in lab clothing and glasses, he must be a scientist. What's strange is that his glasses are always reflecting light, thereby making it hard to see what his eyes look like. Twilight was eager to talk to the being with glasses, as a potential fellow intellect, but Mephiles had stepped in first.

"What are you doing out here?" Mephiles said curiously, seeing his developer with two sentimental automatons.

"Oh, I'm just doing a little field research on the castle." The being in white said casually while the robotic duos reflect in their memory bank of his hostile behavior towards them. "What have you to report?" He continued without facing toward the resentful machines.

"We have captured this manticore for the doctor. In the meantime, we also have stumbled upon the natives of this world?"

"Natives?" looking at the horses. "That must be them then?" remembering how he and the pilot crew saw a pack of pegasi back when the Egg Carrier teleported in this unknown world.

"They call this land Equestria."

"I see, and I guess that makes them Equestrians." Makes sense since Equus is Latin for horses, which in turn formed the modern term of 'equine.'

"What shall we do with them, Mod?

"That would up to the Doctor, not m-"

"Maud!" A pink horse suddenly sprung up to the pale figure. "I have a sister name Maud. Is your name Maud too?" The bipedal being in white was taken in surprise by the pink equine. She reeks of cotton candy and sweets, judging from the scent up close.

 _"Isn't it unhealthy for horses to eat sweets?_ " he mentally questioned. _"Probably not so much in this alien planet."_ He then responded to her outspoken question. "Is her name spelled M-O-D."

"Well, no but-"

"Then no." _Strange and somehow convenient that this alien world follows the English alphabets from Earth._ "I do not remotely share the same name with your sibling." He finishes by pushing his horn-rimmed glasses with his middle finger. Orbot saw Mod making a rude gesture to the guests. He tried to intervene but the scientist had already turned around and began walking across the bridge.

"Hey wait up." said the yellow, cubed being. Orbot had no choice but to follow. He then asked the new recruit when they got enough distances from the scouting party and the indigenous horses.

"I must say," Orbot declared. "Wasn't that a bit rude?"

"How so?"

"The way you push your glasses." remarking on how he gives the 'finger' right in front of the guests.

"Well, do horses have these appendages?" Mod raised his hands as an example.

"...umm, no..."

"Then this shouldn't be a problem." The former GUN scientist harshly said with an attitude upon reaching the vicinity of the castle.

* * *

"Is he one of the masters?" Twilight asked Gamma, feeling sad that she didn't get to ask him questions and partly blames Pinkie for that.

"Affirmative, but he is only a recent recruit."

"A recruit?"

"Ultimately my orders are followed by my creator."

"He is my creator though," Mephiles said bluntly with cross-arms.

"Then you must be new too...wait, created...then what are you?!" Pinkie played around like this is some guessing game. Mephiles was silent in crossing his arms, yet at the same time a little bit scary from the eyes he displays; making things erringly quiet.

"But why do you follow him if he's only a recruit?" Twilight focusing the inquiry to Gamma. It doesn't really make much sense to follow orders from a newcomer of...whatever organization Gamma, Mephiles, and the orange automatons dubbed Egg Pawns belong to.

"He is a sentient organic."

"Could you be specific on what kind of species is he?" Twilight politely asked.

"A human being." The ponies fell silent on the uncommon word. "Do they not exist in Equestria?"

"Eh," Rainbow remarked. "There was this unicorn in Ponyville named Lyra talking about them. She always keep pratting on how they exist and," the rainbow-maned mare had to jogged something in memory of Lyra stating her crazed theories. "Something about having hands?"

"Affirmative," confirmed the large, red automaton with the E-102 label. "But so do we," pointing on how he, Mephiles, and the Egg Pawns also have them. This then confused Dash.

"So wait, humans and robots and...whatever Mephiles is," who then gave her a stare. "Are they one and the same species?"

"Negative."

"Ugh," finally giving up on talking to something or someone that talks bluntly and monotonously. She turns towards Fluttershy, for it is always comfortable to get in a conversation with a familiar someone than an unexpressional stranger like Gamma. "So Fluttershy, you know much of these humans?"

"Not that I know of," said Fluttershy in honesty. "I don't believe I have ever met one before." That is before the meeting the human called Mod. Everypony then looks up to Twilight for guidance, seeing that she's the Princess's protégé.

"Humans are not in the creatures glossary, but they are a mystery," the lavender unicorn stated. "There were rumors that they are intellect beings capable of building marvels beyond pony capabilities in improving technology and society as a whole." They also must be the ones who can build things like a metallic airship or functional machines.

"Do they have some form of magic like we do to do these things?" Applejack asked knowing how earth ponies use their magic to grow from the ground and the pegasus has theirs to manage the weather.

"Do they have horns to do magic?" Rarity asked as a unicorn.

"None," Twilight reminded from Gamma's statement on magic. "And that is what makes them unique. They're able to build anything through sheer intellect, physical capabilities with their hands, and manual labor when in numbers. In fact, they may the ones who can build automatons like Gamma."

"All these are generally correct." Gamma confirms with astuteness when listening to their theories. If he has any facial expression, now it would be something like a nod in agreement.

"Okaay," Rainbow slightly getting the idea of what humans are. "So they're just a bunch of eggheads then." The ponies are silent from her statement, especially Twilight who often gets that label. Though putting these thoughts of humans, automatons, and hands has been hard on Rainbow, especially when she didn't really get enough sleep to think straight from the airship's sudden appearance and crashing through her house. "But what are hands again?" Still somewhat grouchy and remembering Lyra's crazed fanaticism. "Are they like claws?" seeing these body parts from Mod, the robots, and Mephiles and remembering how Spike uses them to write.

"Somewhat." Fluttershy said, "But unlike claws, the hands aren't necessarily sharpened." Remembering as she once met the minotaur, Iron Will, whose fingers aren't like Spike's. While they were all talking about their thoughts of humanity, a floating vehicle flies up from the canyon. Gamma and the Egg Pawns saluted to being on the flying mobile, earning the glimpse from the ponies as they stopped their conversation. From the ponies' point of view, they see a flying machine carrying what appears to be another human. This one was large, dressed in red, has a big mahogany mustache, black goggles on the forehead, and black glasses.

"Gee, humans really are eggheads." Rainbow humored in thought as there's another four-eyes. The large human in red leaned forward towards the scouting party.

"So, what have you to report, Mephiles?" the large red asked. The dark one went on saying the same discovery that was said to Mod. He also included some facts from the ponies such as the ability to use magic and their presumption of humans, bringing much surprise to the ponies. He was quiet majority of the time whenever they talk, though a quiet mind is needed in order to pay attention and remember what was said out loud. The human in red then gave out his order. "I see," the red one said. "Then bring the manticore to the Egg Carrier for experimentation. Further instructions will be given when the castle is finished with its construction." The Egg Pawns then had the manticore tased towards the elevator tube leading to the Egg Carrier, but not without hearing from a pegasus's complaint.

"Experiment!" cried the shocked Fluttershy. The egg-shaped human was then reminded how the scouting party had come across the natives of this world of Equestria.

"Oh, did I say experiment? I really mean study because uh," Eggman had remember on how international law and animal rights activists back on earth had ethical reasons against experimenting live subjects. Something the doctor tends to ignore when using small animals as fuel for his Badniks. The yellow pegasus reminded him a lot with Cream the Rabbit though, shown through her concerns with animals. He continuously explains, "The manticore is something of myth in where we're from and we would like to examine its capabilities."

"Indeed, we have witnessed your airship over the land of Equestria and we would like to know your intentions and where you're from," said the lavender unicorn who then introduces herself as Twilight Sparkle. The others follow along with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.

 _"Weird names if you ask me,"_ the egg-shaped human had said to himself. Seeing the colorfulness of the ponies remind him too much of his nemesis and his allies, especially the blue one with rainbows. He let the thought slide as he introduces himself. _"Okay here goes,"_ he silently said before the formalities. "Greetings, denizens of Equestria," he stepped out of his vehicle, which then still floats. All these bring much astonishment to Twilight and other ponies. They are distraught by his large stature (standing tall at 6'1). "I am Dr. Eggman, CEO of Eggman Enterprises." _For now, I'll have go for Enterprises._ It's probably a bad idea to bring out the actual name of Eggman Empire, which may connotate a ruling and conquering regime to foreigners. Looking at the expression of the ponies, he could see that the blue one with rainbow mane couldn't resist laughing.

"Eggman?! Your name is may as well be Egghead," she uncontrollably said with laughter. Her peers began to stare at her for insulting a guest to their diplomatic mission. The latter of which is seething in anger.

 _"This is something that blasted hedgehog would say!"_ Eggman mentally screamed. _"If she is just like Sonic in this world, ugh."_ The thought of that really irritates him, though she could maybe be an asset when it comes to his schemes. Thankfully, in his reaction to her outburst, he kept a cool face knowing that he's in a different world without Mobians. "Yes, I am called Eggman. My full name and title is Dr. Ivo Robotnik; Eggman is nickname I call myself," even though it actually started out as an insult from his enemies. He's gone quite used to the name and strangely grew fond of it. "And Eggman Enterprises is a private research facility from the planet Earth." He sees that the lavender unicorn Twilight Sparkle, whose name probably came from those fancrazed vampire novels, writing down the notes with her pen and magic. "Earth is generally not something capable of traveling worlds, but we as a private research company have recently found a way to do so." He lied; he's traveled to plenty of worlds in his career. "In the meantime, we would like to discover life beyond worlds and hopefully be given an opportunity to study them in the future."

"Ah, and in this world of Equestria," Twilight announced after finishing her notes. "We will gladly help you in your studies." She went on to discuss the political atmosphere of the realm. "We are governed by two princesses of Day and Night, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."

 _"Day and night?"_ Eggman questioned in thought on how this world worships monarchs as deities of their weather patterns. _"That's very primitive of them."_

"And it is our diplomatic mission to offer our gifts as signs of peace." Twilight said with Applejack being the first.

"I have apples." said the oranged-coated pony.

"Oh how kind of you. I love apples really." Eggman sarcastically said when being given a bushel of them. _I prefer egg whites myself. Besides, these apples might reek of horse dung.  
_  
"And here's a rare and delicate work of mine, made from the rare silver silk." Rarity in her turn offers her professionally designed clothing.

"Why that's very generous of you," Eggman complimented. _How are these ponies able to sew clothing without any hands to do so manually? Maybe magically as Mephiles stated of their abilities._ "There is a slight awkwardness though," Eggman let out. "It has four sleeves, something fitted for quadruple beings, of which I am clearly not."

"Oh my."

"But your talent is not in vain. I can always have my _(robotic)_ stylist to convert and resize it into appropriateness." _I'll probably use this is as my cape by the time I establish my empire._ "All of these nice and all, and I can assure you that I mean you no harm as well." _For the time being that is.  
_  
"I'm sorry I don't really have anything to offer," said Fluttershy.

"That's okay."

"I have nothing to give." Rainbow bluntly stated. Eggman is somehow starting to feel that she's picking for fight much like that blue hedgehog would do. "But I demand compensation!"

"Oh? For what?"

"You broke my house right through the sky. It took me the whole night to rebuild it, so you better apologize!"

"A house in the sky?" Eggman was confused by the thought, but then he remembered crashing through a well-decorated cloud with rainbows when entering the unknown world of Equestria with Chaos Control and the Egg Carrier.

"In this land of Equestria, the pegasi have the ability to manipulate the weather." Gamma stated to his creator, "including the ability to construct houses with clouds."

"Ah I see now. I do apologize sincerely _," not really_. "But you must understand where we're from. In our world, the weather cannot be controlled, nor can clouds be built into houses."

"Wait, I thought humans were to smart enough to do anything?"

"The human thought can do much, but controlling the weather is beyond our reach." _Of course, I have built several of these weather-oriented devices to counter weather patterns whenever my vehicles are in unfavorable air._ _Apparently no one in the science community can reach my level of expertise._ Clouds that can be constructed into houses are not really a surprise to him, though he acts like he does in front of the ponies. He has battled against his arch-nemesis among clouds a few times.

"So not one single pegasus exists in your world?" Rainbow asked in complaint.

"No, though they were stories of the pegasi race but not so much about them controlling the weather. This fact is relatively new to us."

"What is your world like?" Twilight asked.

"What about Equestria. I, I mean 'we' as Eggman Enterprises, left Earth to discover new life in new worlds and seek to learn more about them. If you want to learn more about us, I'll first have to learn more from you. First thing I have do to is build a base for research _(and my scheming)_ and this castle should do fine." Eggman said.

"Wait a minute," Rainbow said with an attitude." You're using the princesses' castle as your base?!"

"There weren't really any inhabitants in the castle, so I assumed it was abandoned."

"It is abandoned." Twilight corrected. "The princesses left this castle a thousand years ago. Their capitol is now in Canterot."

"Really? All the more reason for me, I mean us, to learn more of Equestria." _The princesses can live a thousand years? Now that is a interesting thought. They really are deities of this world. Something best utilized in my efforts in destroying the hedgehog and establishing my Eggman Empire._

"I can offer help. I have books in the library that can provide information."

"Wonderful," _and convenient at the same time._ "I'll have my Egg Pawns pick them up. As for apologies, you can have one of my robots for compensation. Gamma, you're relieved from duty."

"Doctor?" inquired Gamma.

"You now follow their orders." Eggman reminded.

"Very well," Gamma reprogrammed in his primary directive of serving the Doctor into serving the equines at present. "What are your commands?" he inquired the ponies Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.

* * *

 **When I made this fanfic, it was before MLP's 4th season. When the 4th season premier started and the next after that, I had to improvise on the castle's surrounding with the stairs and the traps.**

 **Eggman and the Mane Six got into an understanding with each side wanting to learn more of each other. As compensation for the earlier troubles, Eggman offers Gamma to them. Originally I was going to add more detail upon this action, but at last minute I said, "Nah, I'll just finish this chapter from here and go on working on the next one." So what happens next? Turn in next time on the _Eggman Empire of Equestria_.**

 ** _Long Live the Eggman Empire_ **  
**Yes, and I love saying this outloud with a fist raised. There really is some form of pride coming from this statement.**

 **Eggman Empire of Equestria is a nonprofit, fan-based literature.**  
 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust for television.**  
 **Mod is an OC created by me.**


	9. Chapter 8: Sporadic Events

_Sporadic Events_

"So after all that's happened," Rainbow Dash complained while traveling from the Everfree. "All we get is a robot?!" The other ponies around her are annoyed by her outburst. Her house in the sky, the Cloudominium, was repaired the next day thanks to the pegasi working nightshift, and an automaton seemed satisfactory to compensate for the damages. They are on their way back to Ponyville. Mephiles and the Egg Pawns followed along, so Twilight can help them retrieve books from her library. The ponies were surprised that Gamma has no words against her whining, other than stated:

"That is correct."

"No offense though," Rainbow said casually after displaying her haughty attitude.

"None taken; neither can it be felt." Gamma responded.

"So Gamma, do robots ever have any emotions?" she asked. Because every time he talks, he always reacts without expression. It didn't really help that he doesn't form any facial features.

"The question is irrelevant."

"Say what...?" Around her, the ponies are also flabbergasted by Gamma's answer. Robots having emotions is considered irrelevant from where Eggman and his organization came from?

"So you don't have any feelings when somepony hurts you?" Fluttershy innocently asked.

"Negative. Emotions are not a part of the robotic construct. However, to answer your inquiry, the closest answer would be that signals within our sensors would report any interior damages."

"So you don't feel anything if you get injured?" Applejack asked, wanting to know how a robot feels when doing hard labor, similar to her occupation of tending the Sweet Apple Acres.

"Repeat. Emotions are not a part of us, neither does 'injury' applies. If we are to receive severe damages, we can have an auto-repair in our system or a nearby manufacturer to repair us."

"How about the part of getting tired?" Rarity asked since she always struggles against fatigue in her line of work from dedicating to satisfy her customers to celebrities who may recommend her expertise.

"Exhaustion is not the correct phrase. We do however; require recharging our energy in order to operate."

"What are you powered by?" Twilight asked. In Equestria, automatons are typically operated by magic such as a unicorn using theirs to move armor. What is it that humans use as a source of energy that doesn't involve magic?

"Robots are generally powered by electricity," he answered. "But Dr. Eggman provides an alternative source in...There seems to be a problem..." Twilight and the ponies are befuddled by his pause in silence. Mephiles chose to stay quiet from this and the Egg Pawns are not exactly ones for conversations. "...accessing data...data unavailable...does not compute." This causes the ponies to question his enigma. To translate in common language, "I cannot seem to answer your inquiry."

"Oh? How come?"

"My memory hard drive has information of the subject, but my primary directive indicates that I am not to explain any confidentiality of my former organization." Twilight can understand from his terminology; which means he has knowledge of the energy source provided by Eggman, but isn't allowed to bring it out.

"Well if it is confidential, you don't have to share." Twilight contented, though this makes her eager to ask Eggman of his technological methods even more.

"This is abnormal. My orders are supposedly shifted from Eggman's to equines Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. But somehow I cannot bring myself to share information from my former master." No one was sure what to say of this. The ponies would ask Mephiles and Egg Pawns, but they remain silent. Their given commands are only to retrieve books from the Ponies' library, which they are a few distance away from Ponyville.

"So, Gamma," Pinkie asked in order to break the silence. "How about getting excited?! Wait can you get excited? Smile?" Pinkie went on with synonyms of activeness and optimism.

"Negative, robotics constructs are..." he would then continue with the same sentence and unusual vocabulary, further irritating one who couldn't bear him speaking those tones.

"Oh alright we get it!" Rainbow cried out. "You're robots. You don't need to go on saying the same thing!"

"As you command."

"Wait, that's not what she meant." Twilight informed Gamma.

"My primary directive is to serve. Since I am no longer in service of Eggman, I am in service of you."

"Is that what automatons do for a living?" Twilight knows that it's common for machines perform functions for their masters, but what about a machine that can talk and think for itself?

"We are built only to serve."

"Well, a robot would make fine servitude if you ask me." Rarity flaunted, knowing that she can have all the chores done without her or Sweetie Belle doing them if she were to have an automaton in her business. Applejack gave her a dirty look for that remark, when it is a pony's responsibility to do their chores, not someone who is treated like a slave. But the red robot concurs.

"That is confirmed."

"Don't you have any sense of free will?" Applejack asked. "Like make your own judgements and make your own decisions?"

"Robots make their own decisions through their artificial neural networks, especially when in combat. They performed with efficiency and without hesitation. A 'freed' robot, independent from its original programming, is rogue and deemed to be dangerous."

"How so?" the ponies would say. Gamma continued.

"A rogue robot is deemed dangerous because of the unpredictability it may cause. Termination is required."

"Umm...that's harsh, isn't it?" said Fluttershy tearfully, knowing that 'termination' may frighteningly mean execution.

"Affirmative. A hard decision is needed to solve a complex situation." He continued on explaining the reasons through the laws of robotics, human history of developing them, and fields of 'modern' technology and cybernetics. All these give Twilight much needed detail of her studies in automatons and her new studies on human advances. It is of very little interest to those around her though, especially with Rainbow Dash feeling that he's speaking another language. They didn't pay much attention until Twilight finally asked a question that they can all understand.

"Would you to say, that once a robot is given purpose, would they be considered a living being?"

"Negative. We are not biological organics."

"But what about what you've said about cybernetic organism." reminding the discussion on cybernetics when other ponies couldn't understand.

"That applies to cyborgs, biological beings equipped or integrated with machinery. This does not apply to a fully built robot, such as myself," he said refuting Twilight's conclusion of the theory that automatons should be treated like a living being if they are so. By then, they had reached Ponyville.

The ponies of Ponyville began to stare at them with both curiosity and suspicion. At first, they were afraid of strangers such as a certain zebra for simply being unknown to them. In this case of scenario, there are the ponies from their neighborhood walking with a being in red armor, a black, spiky biped, and whole army of orange, armored unknowns. Only one unicorn, coated in very light aquamarine, stared with excitement while the other, her earth pony friend with blue and pink mane and coated in a somewhat yellow, tries to stop her from getting close.

"Are those hands?!" the unicorn asked the group.

"That is correct," answered Gamma. The human-obsessed pony is then seen squealing as she somehow jumps high enough to reach Cloudsdale and falling back safely to the ground.

"Now now Lyra." said her earth pony friend. "Just because you've proven that hands are totally different from claws doesn't mean humans exist."

"That's not true Bon Bon," Pinkie sprung up to her with Lyra paying even more attention. "We just saw them around the Ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters and they were-"

"Pinkie!" cried Twilight. She used her magic to refrain her from explaining any further. Twilight was worried this may cause Lyra to go dashing through the dangerous forest of the Everfree to meet them. But it is too late. Lyra was already gone, running as fast as the Sonic Rainboom through the Forest. Twilight and her friends were scorning her for speaking about humans too soon to the unicorn without concerning her safety in the wilds.

"Correction," Gamma stated to the ponies scolding Pinkie. "There are other scouting parties by Eggman out there in the Forest with the objective of taming the surrounding area." He reminded them of how his 'organization' wanted to take any volatile animal captive for study. Therefore it can be assumed that the Everfree will not be as dangerous as it were. "We have been doing this since our arrival. Our tranquilization of the area is estimated to be around 8 hours and still ongoing." They moved on towards the Golden Oak Library. The some ponies around the party were still observing them; though some moved on to their business. Bon-Bon is one, seeing that it's just another typical day of her friend playing around with her obsessive theories.

Spike was asleep for majority of the day. But then he began hearing stomping sounds and odd chattering from the outside. The baby dragon decided to wake up and walk to the door when the entrance to the library was opened.

"Uh...Twilight. What's going on out there?" Spike asked to the supposedly figure to the door with his blanket and scratching eyes along. Instead of the lavender unicorn, it was a black figure, taller than the baby dragon, and he's staring down at him. "Aliens!" he cried. The dark one stick out his index finger towards him. Spike thought he was pointing at him as an army of stomping figures in round, orange armor and blue eyes enter the library. "Stay back! I...I...can breathe fire!" The black figure was still staring. The dragon took a deep breath, only to exhale a small flame that quickly turned into bits of died out embers. Spike was terrified. He didn't know what to do. He wished Twilight was here to help, which he thankfully seen her galloping towards him.

"Spike." she called out to calm him down. Twilight began to explain all that has happened from diplomatic missions to robots.

"We actually get to have our own robot. That's so cool!" He said with cheerfulness.

"Wait, you knew what 'robots' are?" Twilight was taken by surprised that he know what robots are like he has foreknowledge of them.

"Duh. They're in my comic books all the time."

 _"Figures,"_ Twilight mentally said. Spike is a total geek for comics while Twilight finds them more suitable to boys or people who would rather look at images than read words in a literary book. The figure in black, Mephiles, had the Egg Pawns picked up all the books of non-fiction in the library as knowledge and acquisition for the 'supposedly' Eggman Enterprises. He had gone through receipts and due dates of returning books, which is about months, and left with the robotic army with no words. The Mane ponies wanted to know what he is, so they asked Gamma.

"What does he look like to you?" One might ask him. He might not know Mephiles's background; at least he can give a description on his appearance.

"He bears a resemblance of a hedgehog." he answered.

 _Hedgehogs? They're supposedly small and on four legs, but Mephiles is the opposite as he stands tall enough to reach their heads._ Gamma explained biological beings on Earth called Mobians where they typically stand on two legs and can talk. He made it brief on their appearance as the ponies were tired of hearing his monotonous, historical, and scientific lectures that only Twilight interests in. The stuff of hedgehogs being faster than the speed of sound has Rainbow intrigued, imagining herself racing against them. Spike is more interest in what the red robot can do. The latter stated to be equipped with scanners, homing missiles, a hover mode, copter mode, wheels, hands that can transform into utilities and weapons such as a taser, and self-repair mechanism.

"Can I see how you fire your arm cannon?" Spike asked to see how cool it would look in person than in comics.

"Requesting permission to fire?" Gamma asked the ponies. His orders are specifically towards the equines around, not their dragon. The horses nodded, but…

"Just be careful where you're shooting that thing!" Rainbow reminded, though it came a little too late as the shot is fired at a nearby cloud, causing a pegasus floating on it to evade. Conveniently it happens to be Derpy on top of that particular cloud. Rainbow shouted at Gamma for his reckless action.

"Condolences are needed." Gamma replied while unable to feel a sense of a shame.

"Doesn't your scanner tell you that there are signs of life, including ones in clouds?!"

"Reminder, my lock-on scanners are needed to pinpoint hostile targets. However, with no belligerents at present, it was my assumption that a small cloud of that size would be without casualty; an error in my judgement."

To move away on the subject of Gamma's mistake, Twilight gave the letter of report for the Princess to Spike. He gave out a fire breath, which questions Gamma's logic.

"Estimated temperatures at 451º Fahrenheit," alarmed the robot. "Inquiry. What is the reason to incinerate a report of vital importance to the authorities of Equestria?"

"Oh, it's not really like that," Spike said. "This is how I always send messages?"

"Further explanation is needed."

"It's done magically," lavender unicorn stated. "When the message is burned to ashes, the ashes would then re-vitalize itself to the recipient."

"Magic. I need to analyze more of the concept. It seems very incomprehensible for my databank."

"You want to learn more of magic?"

"I did not state 'want.' Desire is not a component in my system."

"She's asking if you like to do something," cyan-coated pegasus said in frustration and a facehoof. "Let's say this. If we weren't giving any orders, what would you do?" Inside Gamma's artificial neural network, this is unusual and unheard of. His decision-making skills are focused only on performance and efficiency, but never on objectives of his own other than the programmer. Doing so would make him a rogue AI. But at the same time, his directives are to serve the equine's orders, and that is to answer questions of his choosing.

"I would 'like' to take to a tour of Equestria."

* * *

Back at the Egg Carrier

"Yes. That's right. Take a tour of Equestria." Eggman said facing a screen from a hidden camera installed in Gamma. "And I didn't even to command you to ask." Any actions taken to Gamma without the robot's consent would've given off suspicion to the indigenous civilization. The obese doctor had to pass through Gamma's firewall without detection when the robot almost leaked information of how the doctor powers his Badniks. The doctor's hacking skills proved exceptional in avoiding robot's self-evaluation and the horses' inquisition. With luck, he can obtain firsthand information of the world of Equestria without being noticed by Gamma or the horses. The egg-shaped scientist may have piles of non-fiction books of this realm thanks to Mephiles's discrete efforts, but looking at the world himself without suspicion would go smoothly in his plans.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters,

"Okay, all these parts have been marked as traps." Mod said to Cubot, Orbot, and Egg Pawn construction workers on the Ancient Castle's contraptions. He continued on in frustration, "So use your AI and get the job done!" The GUN turncoat had to go through hours of repetitively giving safety procedures to the poorly-AI robots and furthering irritating him from his agenda; which is to do research, not work on architecture. Cubot and Orbot had to cower around the complying Egg Pawns.

"Gee, who give this noobie authority over us?!" Cubot complained outloud to Orbot. His partner is shuddering in fear as the man in white is already in front of them.

"You had to spoke too soon," Orbot rhetorically said. The scientist began pull out something shiny from his coat. The orbed shape robot knew it's a weapon. His cubed friend responded differently.

"Hey, is that a Desert Eagle?" Cubot said in a nerdy voice and not seemingly concerned of the situation at hand.

"Um don't you think you should be focusing on something else than that?" said Orbot, like on how the man in white plans to use it on them.

"C'mon. We've played CoD all the time. It shouldn't be that hard to recognize one of these…" And bam! Mod had fired a shot at Cubot. "Ow! That hurts y'know!" permanently damaging his voice chip without repair.

"You're lucky that you're built to be bulletproof," said the former GUN scientist.

"Wait till I tell the doctor on you!" Cubot cried in the only voice he has at the present while Orbot tends toward the dent in his armor exterior.

"Hmph, good luck with that." Mod responded while seemingly knowing that Eggman only cares about combat-based robots. Which the two small ones are not built for; neither are they equipped with any reliable weaponry. "I have more important business to attend to."

"Well, break a leg!" yelled the sarcastic Cubot when Mod was a few distance away from them. The human had walked on a rug, which he somehow fell into a hole underneath it. Apparently he had missed one trap floor inside the Ancient Castle.

"Goddammit, I almost broke my leg." Mod said appearing from a conveniently-placed elevator nearby.

"Ha! Serves you right!" Cubot shoved his comment in the glasses guy's face. "Karma is punishing for what you did to my voice!" The scientist in white is staring at them angrily through his horned-rimmed glasses. He aims his handgun on the ruined ceiling above Cubot and Orbot and shot a few rounds. The ceiling then cracked and rubbles came crumbling down on the robotic duo, leaving them in non-irreparable state.

"That should shut them up for a while." The GUN turncoat limps away from them with his slightly broken leg before another rubble fell and landed on his head. "Grrr…" Having had enough with incompetent robots and the castle, Mod limps his way out of the soon-to-be-mechanized-fortress, pass through the bridge, and was off on his way to the Egg Carrier. He was going to take the elevator tube, since it wouldn't be appropriate to take the stairs with a slightly broken leg, but something, or rather, somepony went up to his face.

"A human!" Mod's vision is blinded by the color of very light aquamarine. He could hear words coming out of it, or her, indicating the voice to be a female.

"I was right! Humans exist! I told them. I told everypony. But noooo they didn't listen. But I'm right. I'm right all along!" the unicorn boasted, grabbing hold of the human's head with her hooves.

"Get the hell off me you…" Mod was struggling her off his face while not noticing the falling staircase behind him.

* * *

 **Lots of talking here and there with Gamma and the Mane. His lines are so easy to write. All I have to do is remember how HK-47, Robocop, Terminator, and other fictional robots make their statements.**

 **Lyra's gone crazy for humans, Spike's being a fanboy, Gamma wants to explore, Eggman's scheming, and my OC is currently suffering from karma and bad luck for abusing robots and murdering his former GUN colleagues in defecting to the Eggman Empire. And Cubot is now using his Boom voice, since having him change his audio and whine about it would be too annoying.**

 **What plans does Eggman have for Equestria? Stay tune for the _EEE_**  
 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Eggman Empire of Equestria is a nonprofit, fan-based literature.**  
 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust.**  
 **Mod is an OC created by me.**


	10. Chapter 9: Diamond Dire

**I was originally going for Diamond Industry or Exploitation. Then I went for Diamond Dire because 'what the hell' I'll just go for whatever sounds cool.**

* * *

Ch. 9: Diamond Dire

Yesterday, after they had landed in the ravine around an abandoned castle, the two mad scientists were discussing matters of their robotic projects in the Egg Carrier. As a former GUN scientist, the man in white asks questions to his new employer.

"Speaking of resources, I had been meaning to ask." said Mod, the recent recruit of the Eggman Empire. "Besides captured animals, how else would you power your robots?"

"You've worked for GUN." Eggman bluntly stated to the newcomer. "You should already know how my machines are powered by, especially when the military have been building their mechs from scavenging my robots."

"Yes, that was my line of work," the former GUN scientist confirms. He generalizes his activity from 'analyzing through scraps of machinery, copying their designs, and remaking them according to GUN's desire.' "Of course, they're going to have a problem advancing their tech now that you have a defector by your side." He cunningly spoke while pushing back his horn-rimmed glasses.

"Indeed, that would give me the upper hand in my conquest of Earth," Eggman confidently responded with a fist raised before he shook his head. "However, I am not going back there as long as that hedgehog is around."

"So against GUN and the world militaries, you would have no problem," Mod expressed in intrigue, noting that the world's enemy could take over earth with ease. "But against Sonic-"

"I am not going to risk another defeat by that filthy rodent and his furry freaks."

"I see." Mod reverts back to his topic of energy sources. "So I'm assuming that your machines, when not using animals, are powered up by Chaos Drives." It wouldn't really make sense to have only animals being the batteries for robots, for their general population are limited in comparison to an assembly production of Egg Pawns.

"Yes they are," Eggman replied. "It was an invention made by my grandfather to find a better and more efficient form of energy to power mechanical weaponry." The egg-shaped scientist then had a quick flashback on how he was having a blast in destroying G.U.N mechs with his Egg Walker back at Prison Island. There he would fire missiles at the government, metal grunts, whom they would leave trails of Chaos Drives after their destruction. He would ask Mod if he and other scientists were involved in copying his grandfather's line of work, but it seemed that the GUN turncoat had more to say.

"I am also proposing an alternative source of energy," he exclaimed, intending to go on further ahead of Gerald Robotnik's original design. "The energy that the Chaos Drives give off is sufficient, but far inferior to a Chaos Emerald."

"You're saying that I should be powering my Badniks with Chaos Emeralds? That would be a good idea, but there are only seven total and we can only allow one in this alien world." Eggman reminded when they only needed one to amplify its power and transport the Egg Carrier to a world faraway from human contact.

"Oh? Why only one?" the pale scientist inquired.

"If I do acquire more," the obese doctor stated. "Sonic and his allies would be suspicious, and no doubt be well aware of our plans."

"So if someone else steals the other Emeralds, this will give off the vibe that you're behind it all even if you had a third party do it for you." Mod said if a third-party ally, a GUN defector such as himself, were to steal the Emeralds, everyone will still suspect him to be working for the Eggman Empire.

"Exactly, I want to take over a world without any hedgehogs involved, and one Chaos Emerald should be good enough." Eggman voiced when he had no qualms of conquering other planets, prior to the creation of his "Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park."

"Why not make a mass production of them?"

"Huh?"

"A mass production of Chaos Emeralds," the scientist in white repeated. By then, an automatic door opened with Mephiles appearing with blueprints and data in hand. He gave the schematics to his sponsor, Mod, to which the latter makes his presentation. "Miles Prower demonstrated a remarkable feature. When he was rewarded a Chaos Emerald for his efforts at Station Square in disabling your nuke, he proceeded to conduct an experimentation without any external assistance other than his own. His project was to make a copy of another gem of power, an Artificial Chaos Emerald."

"Ah yes, I remember he did that." It was a time where Eggman was close to defeating Sonic. He had outsmarted Tails, knowing beforehand that a Chaos Emerald the fox made wasn't the same as the genuine. _"'Because you told me so.' Ah, those were the best times,"_ Eggman visually remembered in a flashback. _"When I led Sonic into a trap and nearly have the world in my grasp. Wait. If I had fire the Eclipse cannon, then how will I have built my Eggman Empire on Earth? How will I conquer the universe then without a population to control and sovereign built?"_ Eggman listened more to what the pale scientist had to say.

"When you were close to detonating Sonic in space, he escaped using Chaos Control with the Artificial Emerald. This demonstrates that while it is a synthetic copy, it is strong enough to perform feats of a regular Emerald. What I'm proposing is this." He pulls a large jewelry box from his attire, inside of which reveals a big piece of raw, colorless diamond; a similar size to that of a Chaos Emerald.

"Why do you have that in your lab coat?" Eggman asks.

"Oh, this? This was my proposal of marriage to a fellow scientist I've worked with back at Area 51."

"How it turned out?" the egg-shaped doctor rhetorically asked. He could tell beforehand. The turncoat came to his organization with no one else other than his Shadow look-alike assistant, so the outcome of his supposed proposal to his significant other is easily read.

"She didn't reciprocate."

"Did you talk to her often?"

"Only when we're working."

"Ask her out on a date?"

"Our scientific work was more important, so why would I do something as trivial as that?" Mod questioned while feeling a bit weirded out by this sudden change of topic from his presentation to his personal life.

"So you propose to her by showing this large piece of rock just out of nowhere. That's absurd, not to mention downright creepy."

"And what makes you the love expert?" Mod feels he's being too judged here.

"Trust me; I'm a romanticist, feminist, and most importantly, a gentleman. I know what a woman likes, and I can tell you that this proposal is just lame."

"Okay….?" The horned-rimmed responded awkwardly while mentally ranting to himself. _"He's supposed to be the world's most wanted criminal? I mean seriously. I'm here to talk about research, not asking for dating advice."_ "Anyways," the former government scientist let out, "based on these blueprints here, along with the formula shown to us at GUN by Miles Prower, we should be able to copy energies of a Chaos Emerald and synchronize it in a raw gemstone." This is experiment done with Mephiles coming back to Mod's research facility to retrieve the green Chaos Emerald and Eggman providing his machinery to synchronize Chaos Energy into the large piece of diamond.

"Now let's test this out, shall we?" Eggman said. After the project is done with the diamond synergized with Chaos Energy from the original, he ordered Mephiles. "I'll need you to pick up something from Earth." Assuming that he can use Chaos Control, considering his appearance is too much like Shadow.

"What do you need?" Mephiles inquired without hesitation.

"A robot, hidden inside of my bases. I'll be needing him in this world. Here's the location." Eggman pinpoints the location and codes of his secret base on Earth. "Remain undetected from sight, be it from civilian, government, or worse, mobians." Mephiles nodded and performed Chaos Control in a flash.

"It works," the white scientist complimenting the end result of a successfully making an able copy of a Chaos Emerald.

"That remains to be seen," the round doctor cynically snide.

"Why doubt it?"

"Because I've done this experiment before," Eggman stated. "I tried using CZ as vessels for Chaos Energy. The results are dubious; very dubious." He remembered seeing a camera footage in the Ark on how Sonic had teleported to another place out of random. "Besides, these synthetic Emeralds don't last long once their energy has been used." He further explained that when he was experimenting on Tails' Emerald it quickly loses energy usage. This is further confirmed after Sonic had already used it once to escape the explosion and again in his combat with Shadow at the Ark.

"Indeed. The material Miles Prower used was also Cubic Zirconia, but the one I'm using is of raw diamond."

"Where did you get one that size, anyways? A raw, colorless diamond isn't exactly easy to get by."

"It's quite simple, really," said the former, top secret scientist. "GUN had apprehended a drug trafficking, criminal network. We've found that the criminal cartel have set up a racketeering operation involving diamond mines in third world countries. There we would have troops to take out the 'hostile' forces to extract the mined materials and the resources were given to scientists for study. Sometimes, we would reap the rewards for ourselves." Minutes after sharing important info between the two scientists, Mephiles came back with a blue, metallic, and offline souvenir for Eggman. "It looks like the experiment is a success after all." Mod said paying more attention to his project than Mephiles coming back with a Sonic look-alike robot.

"And the Chaos Energy still remains undepleted." Eggman complimented. "All we need now is more crystalline to produce more of these 'Chaos Gems.'" They then agreed to dub them as such.

"That's going to be difficult, considering the rarities of raw gemstones back on Earth." Mod cautiously reminded.

"I transported us somewhere to world faraway from human contact," Eggman reminded of their Chaos Control. "So with luck, it's not an unlikely case that the raw minerals of this planet will be well in abundance."

"But what if this world were to have civilization?" Mod cautioned. "Surely they would have extracted the resources before us."

"Leave that to me." the leader of the Eggman Empire answered responsibly.

* * *

Today, Eggman is currently spying on the ponies through his computer monitor reading Gamma's visual. His supposed, former robot requested to explore this world of Equestria; without him knowing that he is also giving Eggman's firsthand look as if he were the doctor's eyes.

"Everypony got their bits?" Twilight asked when standing by a train station. Her pony friends and personal assistant confirmed their answer.

"Everypony? Well, that's a dumb substitute for a pronoun of everybody or everyone." Eggman poignantly judged in secret. The ponies then look at E-102.

"Bits?" Gamma questioned.

"Bits are our currencies in Equestria." Spike pulled out a coin purse, showing 'bits' of coin.

"I have none, and even if I have 'bits' of currency, I require no purchasing." The red robot stated as his polite way of saying 'no.'

"Well, you are our guest, so we'll be covering your souvenirs and expenses." Rarity offered generously.

"We are?" Pinkie said with wide eyes. Applejack had to nudge to her the obvious.

"Will the souvenirs involve weapons and ammunition?" Gamma asked.

"Wait, what?" the nonviolent ponies and dragon would cry out.

"Why in Equestria do you need weapons for?" Rainbow Dash complained.

"Battle efficiency." Gamma stated in his predictable manner of using a few words before defining them. "Anything of pragmatic use would be invaluable for my combat protocols."

"I can have Princess Cadence ask the guards to lend in their equipment for your studying needs." Twilight offered.

"Jeez, how close are you with the authority figures in the Princesses?" Eggman would've asked if he were there. This is the third princess he accounted after Princess Celestia and Luna. Princesses' ruling a realm isn't really common on Earth. It's usually the kings, queens, or male patriarchs representing the monarchical state while Prime Ministers and other politicians hold the government powers. Coincidentally, Gamma would inquire a similar question, but the train had arrived and there wasn't a time for questions at the moment. They would resume their conversation after they got on board, en route to the Crystal Empire.

"I'm actually a student of Princess Celestia." Twilight continued. She talked about on how she became so from discovering her Cutie Mark and had Spike as her personal assistant from when he was hatched. Gamma would ask the nature of Cutie Marks, which the surrounding equines answered with clarification of being the symbol of one's talent and thereby the very nature of that pony. This gives Eggman from a hidden distance a brief insight on the essentials of these ponies, though he finds the name 'Cutie Marks' ridiculous.

"What of Princess Luna?" Gamma is eager to gather info without knowing that Eggman is also listening.

"I'd reckon you'll be asking that." Applejack stepped in. "It was fairly recent." They then talked to Gamma and unintentionally told Eggman the events of dispute between the Pony Sisters thousands of years ago and how they were reunited in the present thanks to their efforts of Friendship.

"Bah, friendship." the egg-shaped doctor felt annoyed. "You hear that in a children's cartoon all the time, even that blue hedgehog's been stealing their lines." But thousands of years has both him and Gamma curious, which the red automaton asked for verification if the current monarchs are the same as a millennia ago.

"Alicorn typically aged differently from the rest of the ponies." They would answer as if it were common knowledge.

"Alicorns?" the red robot asks independently from his creator's natural response.

"You haven't heard of alicorns before?" Rainbow Dash complained. "What? Have you been living under a rock?" Eggman really wants to crush that cyan mare with his mechs by now if he wasn't being discrete from within the Egg Carrier. She really is too much like Sonic for her insulting habits, especially if she were direct towards the scientist.

"Humans have stories and myths of unicorns and pegasus, but never coined the term 'alicorn' in mixture of the two."

"Three actually," Twilight correctly lectured. "Alicorns are an amalgamation of Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns."

"Earth Ponies? How are they define in the terms of Equestria?" unit E-102 had to asked. Rainbow Dash was getting annoyed his impertinent questioning.

"Ugh, don't you know anything?!" Rainbow finally let out. She has had enough of hearing Gamma using eggheaded vocabulary, which to her are only for those who would waste their time studying and hitting the books; while at same time, he doesn't know their basic, elementary knowledge.

"Rainbow Dash, please," Fluttershy intervene. "Don't be rude. Gamma here is new to Equestria. You can't blame him for not knowing much of our realm."

"Well, talk to this baby all you want!" Rainbow Dash gets up. "I'm outta here." She left for another cart to take a nap, so she wouldn't have to hear all that redundant questioning on preschool knowledge. Gamma was unfazed throughout her outburst.

"Don't mind Rainbow," Twilight assured. "She just had a rough night after all that misunderstanding, yesterday." Gamma noted and wished to continue with the learning process. "All ponies have their unique set of magic. As you know, pegasi can manage the weather. Unicorns perform magic with their horns, and Earth Ponies use theirs to help grow crops from the ground."

"This is all unheard of to the human knowledge." Gamma said. When asked about what he means, "In human knowledge, horses, even at their most basic, do not grow crops. They were historically used by humans for travel, mounted warfare, and food as a last resort." The last statement has gotten the concern from the ponies nearby in the cart.

"Damn it Gamma," Eggman spoke from the Egg Carrier. "You had to mention that to a bunch of talking horses." He couldn't really do much to command his robot, lest it would give the suspicion to both his automaton and the Equestrians of the doctor's secret surveillance.

"So if need be," Rarity frightfully asked. "You would eat us?"

"Negative. Robots do not require meals."

"Then what about humans?" Applejack intervenes. "What's in their diet?"

"Human are typically omnivore, having both carnivore and herbivore appetites, though they vary by location and culture."

"Well, it is understandable that organics need food to survive, regardless if it is meat or vegetation." Fluttershy said as the animal expert and lessening the anxiety from nearby ponies, though she worries if someone like Eggman would eat her and her friends.

"While horses are edible to humans, they are not in their typical diet." Gamma relieves the paranoia in the ponies. "Their meat consumption is generally on lamb, beef, pork, chicken, and seafood."

"What do humans use now for transportation?" Twilight noted Gamma's statement of human's 'historic' use for equines.

"They now use automobiles and locomotion by land, ships by sea, aircraft by air, and spacecraft in space." Gamma's answers have intrigued Twilight even more of the marvels humans can built. Ponies have a few similar vehicles in trains and helicopters, but what humans built can reach even up to outer space. Gamma went on with the topic of alicorns. "Alicorns have the abilities of the three races; do they have traits of their own?"

"Alicorns do age differently, with Celestia and Luna living over a thousand years. But now that you mentioned it," Twilight continued. "When Celestia and Luna were able to lift and descend the sun and moon, their magic weren't depleted but rather nourished by doing so."

"Lift and descending. As in actually commanding the sun and moon?" Gamma questioned. Eggman would've asked the same.

"Before then, talented unicorns, at least about 6 for each setting, had to lift them, but this drains them of their magic, unlike alicorns."

"Don't the sun and moon rotate in orbit around the planet?"

"Actually, no. If no magic is used, then the sun and moon would be in a stalemate." Gamma finds that illogical. He discussed with his worldview's law of physics and motion and planetary orbit. He astounds Twilight of human theories, too boring for the other ponies, and luckily Rainbow didn't have to listen through all that egghead stuff. Eggman is greatly interested by the ruling Princesses' longevity and their vast capabilities with magic in lifting stars.

"Ohohoho, I can use them for a better purpose. Once I harnessed their powers, I will rule not only this world, but also on Earth." Eggman ambitioned in thought. "Perhaps all worlds will bow down to me." He fantasizes of such an occasion, but for now, he needs to plan one step at a time. He can't grandiosely be thinking on his goals all the time. After all, the worst enemy of a good plan is the dream (or to constantly dream) of a perfect plan.

"What of Princess Cadence?" the red robot asked of the third princess, unintentionally giving info to his creator.

"She was my foalsitter." Twilight said.

"Foalsitter?"

"A babysitter in your words. She's been raising me since I was a filly." Twilight smiled gleefully. She went on to current events. "It is so very recent that she and my brother, Shining Armor, hold prestige over the Crystal Empire."

"Well it's no wonder why she has close connections to the princesses!" Eggman blurted out. This Twilight was chosen to be a diplomat for a good reason. With Eggman's confirmation of peace, the diplomacy will insure good relations between 'Eggman Enterprises' and the princesses...so far according to the Doctor's plans.

"But the Crystal Empire, as in a whole land of crystals?" Gamma reaffirms the Crystal regime's description, upon which Rarity, who is a lot like Rouge for her obsession with diamonds, began describing the land as a whole too priceless, even for her.

"Even the ponies have crystals for their hide." She would brag.

"Interesting." Eggman mumbled. "With the Empire, I may be able to mass produce the Chaos Gems. But if I were to mine there, I couldn't go through without scrutiny." And this is not what he wants at the moment. He needs to maintain a good impression in front of the ponies, but at the same time he wants to go through with his operations without arousing suspicion of his real schemes.

"But I do find my own crystals." the unicorn with a certain bat's trait generously brought up a map. She pined where Gamma's former masters are settled in the Everfree Forest; she also pointed Ponyville their home, Canterlot as the capital, the Crystal Empire in the north, Appleloosa in the south, Cloudsdale in the sky, and other distant parts of Equestria. "The diamonds I found are somewhere around the outskirts of Ponyville." Gamma analyzes the map, and Eggman would copy the schematics from the robot's view to make his own atlas of this world. "Though do be careful venturing over there, it's filled with a pack of ruffians over." Rarity experienced.

"Ruffians. Beings engaged in violent, criminal banditry." Gamma defines from his own dictionary.

"The Diamond Dogs weren't exactly bloodthirsty violent per se, but they did tried to force me to do their dirty work in finding more gems for them."

"Diamond Dogs. A canine mammal with quadruped features that barks?"

"They were standing on two legs, and they talk like the rest of us; albeit unintelligent if you ask me."

Eggman saw this as a perfect opportunity to mine for raw minerals and further produce more Chaos Gems. And since nopony particularly owns the place, _"I can't believe I've caught up with their terminology,"_ this should be a piece of cake. Eggman grabs a nearby mic connected to the Egg Carrier's comlink.

"Cubot! Orbot!" He yells. "You have a mission!" The robots were in the repair station after receiving damages from the government turncoat, which the doctor don't mind the abuse; he does that to the duo all the time. After they were finished with repairs, they floated towards their master.

"Aw man," Cubot complained. "I'm gonna sound like this for the rest of my programming."

"We can't even fix your voice chip." Orbot continued. "We have to replace it, but in doing so we would have to dispose of your old body."

"No way I'll be in the garbage chute."

"Well, your programming will be in another vessel."

"Even so, I'm not gonna look at my discarded body. It's gonna mar me forever."

"Shut up, you two!" Eggman shouted before addressing their missions. "Take a squad of Egg Pawns to these coordinates." He digitally shows a holographic map of Equestria, with the Everfree as their base and their mission outside of Ponyville.

"But the Egg Pawns are still doing construction work with your castle, sir!" Cubot needlessly reminded.

"Then built more in the Assembly lines!"

"What about Mephiles?" Orbot raised his hand. "Will he accompany us?"

"No, he's busy taming the animals. Now get going!" The robotic duo ran off.

Mephiles is indeed busy in maintaining control over the feral beasts of the Everfree. Some were defiant in their cages. One in particular spoke in common language.

"Oh-oh-oh!" A purple sea serpent with an orange mustache cried out from being electrocuted by tasers in his confinement. "Why are you doing this to me?!"

"You are a monster." Mephiles coldly retorted to the crying beast. "And an animal that needs to be put in their place like the rest of them."

"Please, I have a name! It's Stephen Magnet, and I wouldn't hurt anyone." he flamboyantly tries to talk his way out. "Unlike some of my peers here." He points to the wild creatures of the Everfree trying to break their cages only to be shocked by taser staves.

"Okay then, Stephen Magnet." Mephiles picks up a bazooka from the Eggman Arsenal. "Do shut up," and fired a rocket at the sea serpent's face, knocking him out cold and covering him with shrapnel.

* * *

Cubot and Orbot led on with a squad assembly equipped with mining tools outside the rocky fields of Ponyville. There the two would act as managers for the workers, even though there was no need for one as they're all tireless machines. The Egg Pawns do all their work in digging, picking, and constructing a mining network of gems. One of the robotic duo decided to relax either from being unlikely exhausted, tired from being abusively ordered, or simply lazy.

"Finally," Cubot sitting a on a beach chair with a generic Egg Pawn fanning him. "A job where we get to be the boss."

"You know. Robots don't exactly feel tired." Orbot spouted.

"Ah who cares," his co-worker responded. "At least we get to watch them work while we relax."

"But what exactly is the purpose for that?"

"Huh?"

"We're robots. We don't exactly have neurotransmitter like organics, so how can we feel?" the orbed-robot's statement is then brushed off by his cubed-friend. Their mission is to make sure things go unnoticed by the native population of ponies. Fortunately, they weren't witnessed by any horses; unfortunately, their operation is being still watched.

"Hey, it looks like they're uncovering a pyramid here." Spot, the smallest of the Diamond Dogs, noted their excavation looks almost like an archeological site.

"Maybe we should ask these trespassers to do the digging for us instead of the 'ponies.'" Fido, the biggest of the trio, shuttered outloud while remembering a bad experience with a whining unicorn.

"Quiet, you two!" their leader, Rover, commanded with a voice that sounds like a centuries old hobbit obsessing over a ring. At first he was thinking about using these strange orange cretins to do work for them, but Rover is a leader for a good reason. "If this keeps up," from looking at invaders' work done without any signs of fatigue. "They might end up digging too deep underground."

"That's good, right boss?" said one of Rover's two underlings.

"No, because that's where our stash is!" He frustrated explained to his dimwitted followers.

"You mean our savings back at Dimonda?" their hometown, even though they were banished for their aggressive and petty approach to collecting diamonds.

"No, not that, you nincompoop! Our underground treasure!"

"Ohhh!" their incessant yellings caught the attention of the robotic managers.

"Say, Cubot did you hear that?"

"Ah it's probably just the wind."

"Hmm, I don't recall the air screaming."

"Yeah, it's totally just the wind." Cubot said unconvincingly. An Egg Pawn, the one doing the fanning, hands a pickaxe to his manager. Cubot grabs the mining tool and throws it at a random bush. Crying was then heard. "Yup, that's how the wind sounds like." Cubot concluded.

"We're under attack!" said the noise. Orbot ignored his co-robot's ignorant apathy and rushed with a few bodyguards. His thermo-vision spotted three lifeforms. But by the time they reached the vegetation, they see nothing but massive amounts of dug-up dirt. He could still mark their signs from above, but these lifeforms are moving at a faster rate underground. Behind him, Orbot could hear clunks of steel falling to the ground.

The Diamond Dogs have no choice. They were spotted and now they have to fight for their ground. Maneuvering from under the dirt, the Dogs used their tactics to disorient these egg-shaped, orange-armored intruders. None of the armored were able to keep track of their attacks, nor could they fight back. Fido pulled off one of the being's leg too hard.

"Holy jeez!" Spot shouted at his bigger comrade. "Did you just amputate its limb?!"

"Huh?" Fido looked at what he's holding. "Woah! I ripped off its leg!" They were scared that they may have killed off one of the beings by removing one of their legs and cause it to bleed to death. The Diamond Dogs were thieving scavengers, not killers. Strange that the leg Fido pulled is displaying no blood and bones. Their leader, Rover, took a note of the enemy traits and plans to experiment it himself.

"Hey, you!" he shouted at one of the orange armored before going down through his hole. The being went up close and Rover pushed it from behind to make it fall into his trap hole. When it lands at the bottom, it broke into pieces with no blood or vital organs. "What are these things?" Rover looked up close, seeing bits of metal and other things unknown to Diamond Dog knowledge. "Spot, call for reinforcements! This is war." The smallest Diamond Dog dispatched for more guards of their band. Even though they were outnumbered from 100s to 10, they had to fight back regardless of whether or not they're killing these…things.

"Oh no! What do I do?" Cubot panicked at the sudden disappearance and dismemberment of their workers.

"You are our boss," said the fanning Egg Pawn.

"Well I don't like this job! I quit!"

"I thought you may say that." Eggman said through Cubot's intercom in his system.

"Doc! If you were here all along, why didn't you help out?!"

"I was hoping you bots are competent enough against these dogs." Eggman noted of the Rarity's description of these bandits. "But nevermind that, I've already send in a detachment team; should things go wrong." Cubot looked up and see a black robot with claws and the label 101 hovering above them.

"How's he gonna help us?" Cubot remembering data files of the unit E-101 Beta mkII.

"He won't. He's only there to provide backup support for my additional troops underground." Eggman stated to Cubot oblivious of their enemy. The doctor didn't bother telling them of the bandits, since they were to just cannon fodder for the attacking defender. They fulfilled their purpose, which to give out enemy formations for the doctor to exploit.

Things were going well for the Diamond Dog trio. None of these armored beings were fighting back, or too slow to even respond. They attack at a much faster rate with seven more of their guards arriving to push back the enemy, with hopes that the invading forces would leave this field for the Diamond Dogs. Spot, having already called for reinforcements, wanted in their action, but then he began hearing noises in their underground territory.

"Hey boss, what's that sound?" Rover ignored him to continue with their fighting. Spot took it upon himself to look further through their hallways. Looking deeper, he could see a vehicle with a drill and three more armored beings. The driver has a metal head, red eyes, red lower body, and white gloves. One is blue with dreadlock hairs, a yellow muzzle and gloves, and red eyes. The last figure is silver and bulky with yellow bug-like eyes.

"Boss!" Spot shouted in fear. Only Fido was close enough to hear the cry.

"We're under attack!" Fido called for the other fighting above in hopes of them joining his and Spot's fight.

The Eggrobo drives the Egg Drill to intimidate the defending forces. Mecha Knuckles and Silver Sonic mkII were brought along. The smallest of the dogs thought he would be a match against the echidna figure of his size, but then he receives a hard punch from it that sends him above the ground.

"Spot!" The big dog cried out for his companion and fights the silver to avenge him. Sadly, he knows nothing of what his opponent can do.

Silver Sonic fires his gun-barreled fingers at the large beast, to which the creature writhed in pain.

"What kind of weapons is he using?" the big dog feels heavily wounded from an un-seeable weapon. Bullets are not often used in Equestria, nor were they as advanced as human guns.

"Analyzing." Silver Sonic mkII scanned. "Opposition holds little to no knowledge of gunnery. Victory is assured at 100%." It rolls into a buzz saw to tackle the large dog. The creature is terrified from the blades of the being. He covered his eyes. When he slightly opens his eyes, he thankfully wasn't sliced in half, but rather got a kick to the chin that sends him flying to the surface ground.

"Oh what are you guys going on about?" Rover came back down with 7 guards to finally take note of the underground attackers. "Charge!" He commanded guards armed with plate armor and spears.

The Eggrobo rushed in with the Egg Drill vehicle to run over one and used the drill from the front to skewer the armor of another. From that point on, the other five guard Dogs began to hesitate of their charge and broke away to the hallway sides. Luckily the vehicle passes by their evasion; to their dismay, the driver made a quick U-turn and fired the drill as a projectile. The dogs panicked and ran off instead of cowering by the hallway sides. In response of their shattered teamwork, Mecha Knuckles and Silver Sonic made short work of sending them flying above ground.

"Stay back! Stay back!" Rover is now surrounded by these armored beings and begs for mercy.

"Setting ammunition to non-lethal," stated the silver one. Rover was relieved to hear 'non-lethal' but not sure of the word 'ammunition.' The bulky silver then launched a grappling wire from his finger to wrap the leader. He spins into buzzsaw, terrifying Rover.

"What happened to non-lethal?!" He wasn't pulled in and shredded into ribbons, but the silver being buzzed through ground for the surface; bringing the bandit chief along with him. When it reached the top, the silver threw the leader up in the air. "Help me!" he cried hopelessly until he was caught by another armored being, one colored black with large two claws, labeled 101, and flying. "Hey put me back down!" He shouted at the black machine when they've gotten too high in the air.

"Inferior fleshing," it stated. "You do not have command over me." It then throws down Rover hard on the ground, right next to the rest of his injured brethren. They are all rounded up and surrounded by the orange armors and their weapons.

"So doc, what we do now," the cubic robot went up in front of the troops. "Shall we begin the execution?" The conscious are living in terror from that command phrase.

"Woah, Cubot," his circular companion came up to him. "When did you become extreme?"

"What?" Cubot seemingly sounds less harmful and back to his casual self. "Isn't that what they say in the video games?"

"There will be no executions." The doctor said outloud. "Take the prisoners back to base for interrogation and experimentation."

"Today's your lucky day," Cubot said cheeringly to the injured dogs. "You get live…for experimentation."

"We know! We've heard," cried the leading figure of the Diamond Dogs.

"Silence, meatbag." E-101 floated down to approach the leader and knocking him out cold throughout his captivity.

* * *

 **So yeah, remember when Tails made a fake emerald? Why doesn't he use it often if it's just as strong as the original? I fixed in that plot-hole by saying that being artificial, they are prone to energy depletion than a regular one. But those are synthetic, what would happen if you synergize an actual diamond?**

 **CZ. Cubic Zirconia is a formula used on the metal, zirconium, to create a duplicates of a raw diamond. They look too much alike, but their properties differs from each other. I was writing this chapter at a bookstore and I picked up a simple book on how to understand the chemical elements in the periodic table. Knowing me as the non-science guy, I would've given myself a headache. So I skip through all that boring electron explanation and simply go with on what people used these metal elements for.**

 **I've also looked in the bookstore on official MLP comics and books for children. They were really helpful in providing info on Alicorns with the _Journal of the Two Sisters_ and the home city of the Diamond Dogs, Dimonda (actual name). If you google the Diamond Dogs, their names are really Rover, Fido, and Spot. **

**Eggman is a feminist, romanticist, and a self-proclaim gentleman. No, I did not made that up. SEGA actually wrote his description in the game manuals. I believe it was on SA, SA2, and Sonic Heroes.**

 **Eggman has sent to battle Mecha Knuckles, Eggrobo, Silver Sonic MKii, and E-101 Beta Mkii, because you can be very creative from their one-time portrayal. Silver Sonic MKii is never used in the games. He can be seen in SA inside a capsule of Eggman's base. He is as I've described him in the chapter with his bulky features in comparison to Metal and have gun-barrels as his fingers. Since they are all robots, they don't really have much of a personality other than follow orders. I decided to give Beta very bigoted lines, and it somehow suits him.**

 **Raw diamond farms are safeguarded under his control and his Chaos Gem manufacturing is in progress. What does Eggman plan later on with capturing hostile animals, building a production of Chaos Emerald-like Gems, and maintaining a good image in front of Equestria? Stay tune.**

 _ **Long Live the Eggman Empire**_

 **Eggman Empire of Equestria is a non-profit, fan-based literature.**  
 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust.**  
 **Mod is an OC created by me.**


	11. Chapter 10: Apprehension Experimentation

**This is the last chapter I have that is copy/pasted. Chapters from the prolouge to now were copy/pasted from my files and deviantART. Meaning that from now on, the next, future chapters will be based on my personal schedule and depending on the reception to motivate me to continue.**

 **EDIT 6/28/2016: If you are wondering, I am still active. I've just made a few corrections of my grammar mistakes in this chapter. I am still working on the next.**

* * *

Ch. 10: Apprehension Experimentation

"This is odd." Eggman said, examining the database of his robot, E-101 Beta mkii. The scientist had given the robot a gem of power and is now observing its enhanced performance from the stats. "The energy levels do rival to that of a Chaos Emerald, but I wonder." He removes the gem out of Beta and brought along six additional crystalline that were recently scavenged from the Diamond Fields. Eggman had those six infused with Chaos Energy.

"Do they provide Super Forms like how the original seven are gathered?" He implanted the seven synergized copies of artificial Chaos Emeralds, which he dubbed as Chaos Gems, into one of his bulky prototypes, Mecha Sonic. Through Mecha, its armor started to glow golden from the Gem's Chaos Energy. But within merely three seconds, the supposed super form of the prototype quickly reverts back to its original blue exterior.

"I see. Even with raw-cut diamonds and not cheap alternatives, these Gems are still far from powerful than the original Emeralds. Nevertheless," Eggman concluded. "These Chaos Gems are lasting and sufficient enough to power machinery than a Chaos Drive or a captured animal." He noted of how one swipe from his black automaton can be near-fatal enough to cause a concussion on the Diamond Dog leader. Thankfully the mammal survived, for dead subjects cannot be experimented upon; nor can they be used as batteries for his Badniks. But even so…

"Once I have my Chaos Gems production in motion," he placed the original, green Emerald onto his synchronizing factory. "I should have my batch of elite troops in no time. I may even be able to take on both Sonic and the planet Earth. No wait," he stops himself. "Even if I have an army of the best, they would still end up being scrapped heap at the battlefield, and I'll end up back to producing more of them under limited supply. This world of Equestria is sufficient as a dimensional base against my war on Earth. But I wonder….what should I do with this world's populace?" There's still much to learn of this realm ruled by ponies. They have magic powerful enough to orbitally lift the sun and the moon. The denizens were kind enough to lend in their knowledge from their library books, but to see the magic himself will require empirical experimentation on one of these equines. This will no doubt incite hostility, but this is the inevitable cost of science for the sake of conquest.

An automatic door in his research room opens while Eggman was pondering within. Squads of Egg Pawns were holding what appears to one of these equines, particularly a unicorn in very light, aquamarine. His GUN turncoat recruit, Mod, followed behind the group injured while in messed up clothing and slightly limping to towards the egg-shaped doctor.

"Whatever happened to you?" Eggman asked the GUN defector.

"Long story short," Mod improvised in insinuation. "I've managed to convince one of the native population to voluntarily be our test subject."

* * *

 _What really happened…_

"Goddamn." He hits a step. "Sonuva," he hits another. "Motherf-" and another. Mod was swearing out every curse word in the human language that are better off censored while falling down the stoned stairs of the Ancient Castle's ravine. Had he stopped at the bottom and landed by the head, he would've died; which he is about to snap his neck within seconds. But just at that moment, his body's starting to float. "What the hell?!" Within a few inches of losing his life, the GUN traitor could see himself covered in an aura foreign to human. The blue-green unicorn with a lyre on its rump is quickly strolling down the stoned steps to meet up with him. "Get away from me you freak of nature!" He commanded, fearing that the horse would cause more than harm than good, like blocking his sights from groping his face and causing him to fell down to his near-death.

"Please, I'm so sorry," it apologized; or she, judging from the voice in concern. "I didn't mean to hurt you." Her horn was glowing and the aura had him stand upright on his foot.

"How did you, ugghhh…" the former GUN scientist painfully struggled to have his body stand straight. His bones are broken from the fall, making it hard for him to deduce his observation of what the aura was. "Damn it, how can I do my work when I'm in this condition? Arrghh…." the man white angrily grumbles to himself. He could do a few prosthetics with injuries like he did on soldiers back at GUN, but never had it done on himself. The scientist was about to call on nearby Egg Pawns to assist him to the infirmary, but this horse came up to him. "Get away from me!" he yelled at her again, having had enough trouble from it as he painfully steps back.

"Please, let me make it up to you," she insisted.

"There's nothing more you can do to help." The human in white angrily glared through his horn-rimmed glasses, hoping she would go away. He assumes that the horses of this world can't do much help anyway other than talk, gallop, and cause further nuisance.

"But please," the unicorn begged. "By Celestia, I insist." She had walk up close to his body with her horn glowing. The scientist would have inquired, but seems to be too much in pain to speak; not to mention his constant scolding has caused him to lose some of his voice. "The bones are a bit similar to equine physiology," the pony continued. "If I could conjoin these bones together," she further glows her horn on the human, causing him to writhe in agony.

"Aww f-" Mod curses out more from his body agonizingly reacting to this aura, which the unicorn strangely didn't mind. Human swears must've been unknown to these so-called Equestrians. "This is the kind of pain I inflicted upon convicts." He flashbacks on his projects of experimenting supposedly executed criminals in GUN's top secret laboratories. Human experimentation is illegal by international law back on Earth. But with his secretive background, and the fact that the vast majority don't care about declared "dead" scum of convicted murderers, terrorists, etc; his actions are left unnoticed. He dreads the unknown intentions of the aura and the horse doing the same affliction on him.

"There, all done." The unicorn finished her operation.

"What did you do," Mod suddenly feels alright where can get up and stand. "urgghhh..." however he still suffers from internal bruising.

"I've done some intern work at the nursery. All I did was perform an x-ray spell and levitate your bones to rearranged back to what it's supposed to be." She paused, looking at his stature in excitement and intrigued. "Along with what I've theorized on human anatomy."

"Theorized?" the scientist questioned while struggling to stand straight of his interrogation on the animal. _I shouldn't be surprised that humans don't exist in this alien world, but they strangely seemed very fluent in English. A language invented by humans._

"But more importantly, are you really human?" Lyra excited went up to him. The human scientist still suffers from internal bruising. "Oh sorry." She backed off. "But do you have hands?" The man in white flexes his fingers, surprising functional after his bruising. "Please let me see!" Her horn glows, somehow pulling the human's hand towards her.

"Nrgh, what are you doing to me?!" He exclaims from getting pulled too hard from the alien aura.

"What? This?" Her horn glows again and the aura gently pulls the hand.

"Yes, that."

"That's magic."

"That can't be. Magic is unscientific and unreal," the human declared, despite conducting research on mystical energies from emeralds.

"My peers almost said the exact the same thing to me! 'Humans are not real, Lyra, and there's no way you'll prove it.' But you are human, right?"

"Yes," the man in white answered to entertain the pony.

"Then I'm right! I've been right all along."

"You said you have magic, correct?" the magical horse nodded to his question. "And hands are unknown to you?" The unicorn named Lyra excites from his rhetoric. "Well then, here's my hand." He sticks out his right hand towards her, causing the gleefully unicorn to be ecstatic. "And here's another." Lyra happily sees that he has two hands, and that was last thing she saw before her unconsciousness. Mod had used a hidden sedater, surprisingly functional and undamaged from his falling down the stairs, pulled from his lab coat with the left hand.

"You there." He commanded a few Egg Pawns nearby. "Pick her up. The doctor will want to see this." The Egg Pawns did as he command, carrying her as a team, and went off to the landed Egg Carrier. Mod followed behind, but not before tripping from his still-injured body by the limbs. "Can one of you at least help me?!" He cries out in frustration. They were already by the Egg Carrier and didn't really hear his plea from a distance. "Robots." He grumbled, forcing himself to limp towards the vessel.

* * *

Without at all explaining his story, the former GUN scientist went off to the infirmary. The unicorn is still tranquilized in front of the Doctor while Egg Pawns await for further instructions.

"Put her in the test chambers." Eggman finally gave out his orders. Twilight Sparkle ( _I swear what is up with that name?)_ stated that unicorns have magic in them, and so do the other equine races. The aquamarine-colored unicorn is placed in a stasis tube with Eggman measuring her energy levels like he would with Chaos Emeralds.

"Indeed," the obsessed doctor observed, "they do have energy properties from their 'magic.'" He feels a bit of déjà vu from his recent Amusement Park attempt before smiling at his next scheme. Eggman has Gamma played the informant (without his knowledge) to interact with the ponies, but he also has hidden spies in Equestria, using bee-shaped robots in noteworthy places to spy on the unsuspected populace. He looks away towards his monitors viewing the outskirt roads of a town and sees a few stranding, bystanders easy for picking.

* * *

 **I was going to add more detail to Eggman's next plan, but then I feel like, "maybe I should make some chapters short. I mean they're just one measly chapter and I don't have to go for large word count."**

 **My OC, Mod, is now getting the Butt Monkey treatment as much as Cubot & Orbot, because I'm bored. **

**Now who is the unfortunate target of Eggman's plan? Hmmm? Tune in next time (and hopefully it doesn't have to be months).**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Eggman Empire of Equestria is a fanfic and non-profit, fan-based literature.**  
 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust.**  
 **Mod is an OC created by me.**


	12. Chapter 11: The Metal Raiders

**I totally did not rip the chapter title off from an old booster pack from a certain, children's card game. Sarcastically speaking**

* * *

Ch.11: The Metal Raiders

Three unicorns are arguing to a stalemate on a dirt road far from Ponyville.

One side is a pair of male unicorn twins, the Flim Flam Brothers. The siblings are dressed with their usual attires in yellow, tap dancer hats with a blue stripe wrapped around, have black bow-ties, and blue-and-white stripes for clothing. If one were to distinguish them apart, Flim has no mustache and has ¼ of an apple for Cutie Mark; Flam has a red mustache and has ¾ of an apple on his. Their opposing side is a blue, female unicorn who has a wand and a slightly misshapen, crescent moon for a Cutie Mark, indicating her talents in magical stage performance. She has wears a pointy, purple hat featuring a moon and stars. Both of their vehicles, a locomotive machine powered by the Flim Flam brothers' magic called the _Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000_ and Trixie's carriage also powered by her magic, were stuck together with each of the riders arguing.

"How dare you?! The Great and Powerful T-T-T-Trixie has had enough from last night's commotion and I will not stand for this trivia," the third-person speaking unicorn yelled at the affront locomotive.

"Well well well, we seemed to be at an impasse, brother of mine." sang Flim of the Flim Flam brothers.

"Indeed, we have none other than one of a kind." Flam sung in a rhyme.

"Now 'Great and Powerful Trixie,' if you don't mind." Both spoke. "But we asked that you kindly step aside." They concluded their speech patterns to Trixie Lulamoon, but not without receiving an outburst response.

"Pardon me?!" The egotistical magician cried out. "The Great and Powerful Trixie does not simply 'move aside' to anypony, especially not to a pair of cheapskate con-artists." She had known of their exploits from rumors in her travels.

"I dare say, brother of mine," one of the Flim Flam brothers sang to each other. "But did she slander us?"

"Indeed, but we must say," the other continued. "That we, a corporation of brothers, are a legitimate, family business."

"Well, I assure you two," Trixie retorted but the agonizing siblings continue.

"Oh missy," one of the brothers intervene. "News of your recent little coup of Ponyville spreads like wildfire."

"'Oooh I shall rule of all Equestria,'" the other brought up a cheap doll imitation of Trixie, mimicking and mocking her of her past misdeeds. "'Gasp in awe in the presence for all to admire." They both ended with a laugh. Trixie's mind is now filled with nothing but wrath from their teasing. A faint green spark and stomping sounds were made from a distance, but neither unicorns heed it much as they are both occupied with their situations.

"That is it!" The magician shouted. "The great and powerful Trixie will not stand for this debacle." The mysterious stomping became noticeable to the brothers that they turned away from Trixie to the direction where it's coming from. "Prepare thyself as you are about to witness: the full power of…" She stopped to see what the brothers were seeing, a tall bipedal figure in strange spiky, blue armor. "Excuse me!" She halted her magic to exclaim at the unknown stranger in passing.

"Is there a problem?" asked the mechanical being speaking with a metallic voice. The unicorns could see that this being in blue armor had no mouth to speak, but a metal-plated muzzle. It has only one eye that is somehow lined up with an orange glare.

"Why yes kind sir!" said one of the Flim Flam brothers, assuming that this stranger is an armored mercenary whom they're willing to pay to solve their problems.

"We have an issue, mister!" Trixie shouted first instead of the other sibling, hoping to take this opportunity for the stranger to take her side.

"Hey that's my line!" the other brother complained

"Our vehicles are stuck together," continued Trixie. "And these cretins aren't bothering to move an inch," pointing to the Flim and Flam Brothers.

"Let us assure you," the brothers said to what seems to be a hired muscle. "We are willing to pay double the amount if you move her cart out of our way.

"I'll pay you triple!" cried the performer despite her meagerly-paid income since her fairly recent stunt in Ponyville.

"Oh it's a goer then," the brothers responded to compete. "We will pay quadruple the amount!

"I'll pay quintuple!"

"Sextuple!"

"Septuple!" and the numbers go up between the two sides of fraudulent unicorns until...

"Enough!" The blue metallic being said unfazed by their shouting of money count. "You three will all owe me a favor. Does that sound complacent?"

"Fine, whatever." Trixie said from hearing an uncommon vocabulary before ordering. "Just get on with it!

The armored mercenary went up between the two vehicles. The unicorns were hoping that his strength beneath his armor exterior would suffice in helping out. Instead, the being curved into a ball, spin dashing through their transports, and return swiftly back to the equines.

"What in Equestria have you done?!" cried out Trixie.

"That wasn't our agreement!" shouted the brothers.

"Problem solved…" It stepped a stomp towards them before bending one knee. "…and now it's time to fulfill your end of the bargain." It rockets towards both of the Flim Flam brothers with its arms stretched, knocking them out. "You will all pay…with your lives!"

"If that's the case, T-T-Trixie won't hold back-." She was stopped firsthand with a hard fist to the face. This sends to her flying across the plain. Getting up from her knockback, she could see that the blue armored figure has already approached her within a few meters away. Assuming he uses magic by teleportation, Trixie pulls a trick under sleeve. "Eat this!" She bluffed her exasperated shout with a smoke spell to escape. But unknowingly, her opponent is a non-organic along with having built-in sensor scans. The blue metallic being was unaffected. Already he had caught to her as shown by flying above her. Trixie had one glimpsed to look from behind until she is fist slammed to the ground. The magician slowly recovered, but the armored being is right in front of her. "Stay back!" she cried using her full potential to hold the being in an aura of magic. The unknown brute was a taken back at first, sensing the energy surrounding him to be illogically possible without Chaos Energy as his originator experimented. But then he started to resist the aura, slowly breaking free of magic barrier. Trixie senses this, and she asserts more power to her magic. By then, the blue armored biped had rolled into a ball. Spinning and breaking through the magick while charging towards the unicorn mare, knocking her out. Trixie had used up all her strength in her fight. She fainted from the beatings and in fatigue.

"Targets heavily damaged." Mecha Sonic had stated in defeating the unicorn. He lifts her unconscious body and returns to pick the other two. "Initiating. Scanning area." Mecha Sonic stated. His objective was to capture the unicorns spotted by Eggman's camera spy in the middle of the road. He also must ensure there are no witnesses in the vicinity. Two lifeforms are detected in the sky miles away.

"Hold Mecha." Eggman ordered through a comlink installed inside Mecha. "Your rockets makes too much noise. It may catch more unwanted attention if you fly up." Earlier before apprehending the unicorns, Mecha was made to teleport by Chaos Control with a Chaos Gem and walked towards them. Further rocket boosts in the previous ground fight would've cause more disturbance in the sky. "I already have someone taking care of it."

Unlucky pegasi mares in the clouds are Helia and Blossomforth. Helia is coated in greenish opal with golden mane and has a raining cloud for a Cutie Mark; Blossomforth is coated in white with green and pink mane and has a couple of flowers matching her mane color for a Cutie Mark. Things have been rough since last night's strange event. They were taking a break from their cloudy works to look at unicorns quibbling over their carts. It seems enjoyable at first, seeing the infamous unicorns verbally fighting. That is until they spotted a similar green spark from last night and came a blue armored being. They were all together shocked by his appearances and skills in combat. They plan to gossip this with their friends in Cloudsdale, but then their senses blacked out before their unconsciousness.

"Target confirmed." E-101 Beta Mkii stated after knocking out two pegasi mares. His super speed and teleportation further enhanced by a synergized gem of power made his operation go silently. When the pegasi mares were knocked out, they fell and landed on a cloud without falling through it. The black automaton grabbed hold of a cloud and found it tangible. "Does not compute. Illogical." Noting how clouds normally can't be grasped back on Earth, but he's on Equestria; not Earth.

"Interesting…" Eggman said from reading E-101's sensors. "The clouds are a lot like the ones on Angel Island." He plans on updating his advanced combat robots with Equestrian information after he had finished his studies of the new world. "Return to base," he orders his robots.

"As you wish." E-101 Beta mkii said after lifting two pegasi from a cloud before disappearing. His teleportation was silent and unflinching before being powered by Chaos Energy; it still is even after given a synthetic copy of a Chaos Emerald. Mecha Sonic followed along with his teleportation in a flash, knowing full well from his scans that they are no more witnesses.

* * *

 **If you need a reminder, the story of the** ** _Eggman Empire of Equestria_** **takes place around Season 3 on the MLP side. Somewhere after the** ** _Magic Duel_** **with Trixie getting her revenge on Twilight.**

 **It's been almost a year since the last chapter. I ended up with 1500+ words in the next. Why did I take that long for such a short chapter? Well, I did struggle along with the fight scene with Mecha Sonic and Trixie, which I'm not really used to in writing stuff with lots of action. Sometimes I feel they should be longer like DBZ, but this should suffice. The biggest challenge was the dialogues between her and the Flim Flam Brothers, which is my usual struggle. Plus there's always my personal life: suffering from Major Depressive Disorder and unemployed. If you want to know more, talk to me on my deviantart page where I'm more active on. Maybe it would be motivate me to post chapters sooner than months. Just google: FerrumFlos1st**

 **Helia and Blossomforth are pegasi with one-time lines in the show. Blossomforth appeared in Hurricane Fluttershy while Helia appeared in Rainbow Falls. They both were training with Thunderlane in those episodes and strangely share the same mane with Twilight. There is a bit confusion between the two in the Rainbow Falls episode. Helia was the one talking, but apparently the credits labeled her as Blossomforth. And some stuff more confusing that I lost interest in making sense of minor background ponies with one-time lines.**

 **Eggman now has four unicorns (with Lyra in the previous chapter) and two pegasi in possession. What does he plan with their capture? Tune in next time, and hopefully it doesn't have to be almost a year. Wait, I just said that in the previous chapter. Instead, I should be saying, "Please be patient within one year."**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust.**


	13. Chapter 12: The Master Plan

**December 24, 2016 UPDATE: the next chapter will take a while. I've been enjoying my time procrastinating on some games. So far, I've only corrected a few grammar mistakes and wording in this chapter.**

* * *

 _The Master Plan_

"Lyra is taking too long out there." Bon Bon said worrying about her friend. It has been hours and Lyra hasn't come back home. Normally, her antics would be nothing more a temporary ruse as humans are never proven in Equestria. But what if Lyra's right, and she is indeed meeting up with them? The Mane Six, particularly Pinkie Pie, had confirmed of their existence. But still, humans are a mystery to Equestria. Nopony knows whether these unknown beings are friendly or hostile. These "robots," as the armored beings are called with Bon Bon eavesdropping on their neighborly dragon's comments, may be products of human creations. Who knows what else they could make, and what they can do once they have a unicorn with them? She had to go to the Everfree Forest for Lyra, despite the dangers it poses. Thankfully with her training and skills as secret agent, Sweetie Drops, she should be able to handle any animal she had come across. Along the way, she brings a Ponyville resident as backup and to cover more ground in her search for her unicorn friend.

"I don't even know why you had to bring me along." said the purple earth pony name Berry Punch.

"If you help me along, I'll give you barrels of that grape juice you like."

"Oh right, score!" Berry Punch already has a cup-sized worth of those grape juices in her purse pouch. Supposedly they're helping her to be more aware of their surroundings in the Everfree, but at the same time. "Haggadah! I'm not seeing anything!" Her ramblings can draw in unnecessary attention from Berry Punch's sugar rush. Bon Bon improvises by using her friend's outbursts to draw attention should they find the beings that took Lyra or other carnivorous animals. But something is out of the ordinary in the Everfree.

"Everything seems so quiet." Bon Bon said of the Forest. "Too quiet..." She looks around and doesn't see anything much other than soundless vegetation. Not even rustling sounds from leaves were made. Berry Punch wasn't paying attention to Bon Bon's analysis, but glad of the situation.

"At least they are no animals trying to eat us," said the town drunk. Bon Bon had only rolled her eyes, but relieved that she doesn't have to unethically use her neighbor as a distracting bait for meat-eaters. What feels like walking halfway through the forest, they did found something.

"Hey Bon Bon, look!" Berry Punch spotted something that isn't all green, but an orange, two-tailed, inanimate creature with some kind of string attached to a red jewel on its head. Bon Bon looked in, but neither could figure out what kind of being it is. Something cat-like? A dog? A fox? Judging by close-up inspection, they can agree that it's some kind of toy, or a doll.

"Strange, you don't often see a toy with two tails." Both Earth Ponies were thinking, at least from what they usually see dolls carried by foals or as carnival prizes. They both can agree on how creepy it looks.

"Come on. We have to keep moving." Bon Bon reminded of their investigation to find Lyra.

"Yeah...right." Berry Punch commented with Bon Bon walking further away from her drunken neighbor. Right when she's away from hearing distance. "I'll be right with you...after I have to hear what this doll is saying." Berry Punch looks closely at it, hearing strange voices. Everything around her, her vision became dark, and music is played.

"Can you feel the sunshine..." The doll started floating towards Berry Punch. She could see deep from its eyes of a darkness beyond the abyss. From there, Berry Punch screams in terror.

Bon Bon turns back to see what's wrong with her friend. But immediately, she got hit by a quick swipe from afar, passing her. Feeling misdirected, she tries to find the being that attacked her, and which way leads back to where Berry Punch had found the toy. After seconds of remembering the location, she hurries back, only to find that her neighbor and the doll are nowhere to be found.

"Berry Punch!" She shouted. "Where are you?!" She looked around and found no trace of her. But from lookingabove. "Berry?" She could see that the doll is floating, using its arms to lift the body of her companion.

"What have you done? Let her go!" To her surprise, it did. Dropping Berry Punch at a tree height. Bon Bon rushed to her falling friend and catches her. She checked her pulse. Berry Punch is alive, but with symptoms of little response, faint breathing, and saliva dripping; she's in a coma.

Bon Bon looked at the floating toy getting close to her and starting to hear strange songs. Her sight became slightly darkening of her environment. In immediate response, she gives a forehoof jab to the enigmatic being where it fell to the ground. All the abnormality has stopped. Everything is set back to normal, other than her unconscious friend and the toy lying around.

Bon Bon questions herself on what that toy was and what to do next. Bring Berry Punch back to Ponyville for hospitalization or continue her mission in finding Lyra? In pondering of her options, she was given a quick swipe from a similar unknown, but could now see shades of red. The being had come to visible sight, hovering from the ground before standing put. Bon Bon doesn't know what to make of this creature, only that it's metallic red with dreadlocks, green glowing eyes, two-large nails for claws, and standing on two feet. Probably one like one of those "robots" entering the library with a black spiky creature and leaving town. What she doesn't know that this being is also equipped with rocket-powered flight on its back.

"Oh ho ho! Earth ponies. This is just my lucky day." Eggman said to himself watching computer visuals of Metal Knuckles and its live footage. Metal Knuckles dashed in on his pony opponent with a punch. The earth pony dodges. The echidna did a claw swipe. Again, the equine dodges. "Hmm, it seems that these horses are not all incompetent," seeing as how the past unicorns he captured were taken down with ease by Mecha Sonic. But this is no ordinary pony.

Bon Bon has been training to take down a bugbear with its fast flying and ferocity. Going up against the red metallic isn't much different, only smaller than what she had been training for. After its frequent attacks, she found an opening under the arms, charged in towards the armored being, and wraps her hooves around it.

The red figure flies up, but this is exactly what Bon Bon is trained for. She climbs up on top of the being's head and began pounding on it. She expected it to go madly swinging, but instead it somersaulted and curve into ball. Causing Bon Bon to fall to the ground. As she lands, it uses its ball form to do a drop on her and then jumping off.

Bon Bon is flinched, seeing as she is not going up against a bugbear, but something else entirely. The being, after jumping on her, grab hold on the bark of a nearby tree. From there, it rocketed off and glided towards Bon Bon. She ducked and gives it her all a hard uppercut to the torso. It was send flying up from the hit before falling down. Bon Bon then bucks it hard to the same tree. It ricocheted from its back and landed on the ground. She is severely bruised from the recoil of assaulting its hard armor. The armored being got up slowly, but then broke down. From a human perspective, it's rocket boost is damaged from being landed on the tree by the back, and its damaged torso from the hard uppercut prevented further movement in the limbs.

"Ugh, should've upgraded them from racing mode to combat." Eggman complained, referring to both Metal Knuckles and the Tails Doll. Metal Knuckles was more of a racer than a combatant. It was given similar qualities from the echidna such as being able to do punches, swipes, and glides, but never can much up to the strength and reflexes to that of the original. The Tails Doll originally doesn't do much but float around. Eggman did later gave it a psychiatric gaze, disrupting an organic's neurotransmitters to the point of hallucination and comatose. But only when the victims stare at its gaze for more than a few seconds. This stare is shown to be useless after being swiped at immediately by the second pony.

"Racing? I thought you were for world domination?" His recruit, Mod the rogue GUN scientist, had arrived from the infirmary fully recovered from falling off some stone stairs because of a certain, human-obsessed unicorn. He was overhearing the doctor's comment and began browsing history logs in his computers on 'racing.' Turns out, the Doctor has been involved in myriad types of competition against the hedgehog and his allies from vehicles, non-vehicles, and Extreme Gears to fly alongside the Babylonian Rogues.

"Those were past plans in leading Sonic into a trap." Eggman answered the GUN turncoat recruit. "Afterwards, I can proceed to taking over the world."

Mod didn't respond out loud to Eggman's answer, but mentally rants. "If you were leading your nemesis into a trap, wouldn't he be done by now? Like maybe detonating a nuclear explosive in the stadium with Sonic in it, or have a hidden sniper shot him right at the start of the race?" The former GUN scientist left Eggman to find Mephiles within in the Egg Carrier.

"Hmph." Eggman focuses on the battle in the Everfree Forest. "I guess I have to bring in the big gun." The doctor sends in his better robot to the designated coordinates.

Bon Bon is panting, taking breaths from the fights and injuries she endured. She could see that the red armor is twitching, but poses no threat. After breathing, she got up to focus on her new objective. Get Berry Punch to a hospital and then resume looking for Lyra by herself. But then another sound was made from a distance.

"Another one already?" the secret agent got irritated. She tries to hide somewhere around the trees, but it's too late. That something has already appeared. It looks similar to her previous opponent, only this time it's blue with a spiky head, red eyes, five-fingered claws, and have some hole in its chest. It started making beeping strange noises.

"Target scan." Metal Sonic speak in his unique language only the doctor can understand. He can see that the pony is going into defensive position, expecting him to attack at the front. The blue robot made a hand gesture taunting her, tempting the horse to strike.

Bon Bon understood that this being wants her to attack, despite how appendages are uncommonly seen in Equestria other than the claws of a dragon in her neighborhood. The secret agent of Celestia resists by remaining in defensive formation. She needed to preserve her strength and energy after her last fight. She also needed to analyze how this unknown being fight and how different it will be from the last. That way, she'll adapt and find ways to overcome this opponent. However...

"If you will not attack, you will be first struck." It spoke in its un-translatable dialect. The blue armor ejected faster than the eye can see, appearing to have disappeared right before the eyes. Bon Bon is cut off by its incredible speed and struck in the face, launching her to a nearby tree.

"How?" Her mind and senses were torn asunder. This comes a major surprise. She didn't expect this armored biped to be as fast as Rainbow Dash. Bon Bon leaped off to hold her ground and leads a barrage of forehoof punches against it.

"Not bad for a quadruped." Metal beeps as he dodges. He scans every sign of movement and muscle tension, finalizing his data of copying his opponent into his combat memory. It is uncommon for a four-legged animals to fight with their forelegs punching like fisted hands. While he won't need to apply these meagre attacks in the future, it does give him foreknowledge should he continue fighting these strange horses. He counterattacks by grasping her forehooves, overloading electricity in his hands, and shocking her.

Bon Bon gets a taken back, only for her armored opponent to continue its assault. It has been attacking her from every direction, so much so that she couldn't defend herself. It's like this being is fast enough to be everywhere at once. Perhaps much for more so than the fastest flyers in Equestria.

"It is futile." Metal Sonic gloats to his inattentive foe. He snatches her by the hindleg and throws her up in the air. There, he rocket-boosted towards her, bashing her from all sides. All while launching her around like a pinball. Finally, he grabs hold of the pony, electrocuting her, and throws her unconscious body to the ground. Metal charges his electric energy for a finishing blow until...

"Halt," ordered Doctor Eggman. "I need these earth ponies alive."

"Earth ponies?" Metal wasn't updated of his mission. Neither was he aware that he is in an entirely different world. He could also see another horse, a purple one, in comatose. No doubt caused by the Tails Doll, which it recovers from the ground by hovering.

"I need you to extract these earth ponies for research." Eggman further instructed. "Return to the Egg Carrier!" He let out an order to all his robots. Metal lifts the yellow pony and the purple one to make an instantaneous dash. The Tails Dolls had to lift Metal Knuckles and slowly catch up to Metal Sonic back to base. All the while, they are being watched by a resident of the Everfree.

"My home in the Everfree is no longer safe." Zecora said, noting of these armored beings capturing wild animals in the past hours and now her fellow ponies. "I need to be far away from this place." She swiftly went back to her home in the Everfree to pack up her things and go into hiding. "I cannot risk being discovered," she mentally said to herself of feeling watched. "Into distant parts of Equestria, I must remain undercover."

* * *

 _Back in the Egg Carrier..._

"I'll also need to set you and all my combat robots to non-lethal until I say otherwise." Eggman said while uploading information to Metal Sonic. After he was done, the doctor went to analyze the ponies he captured and had them placed inside stasis tubes alongside the four unicorns and two pegasi.

"Oh ho ho." He said to himself, reminding him of his galactic amusement park. "These horses do indeed have their energy of magic in them. They are similar to the aliens I've captured, but I wonder. What if I were to capture alicorns in the ruling Princesses of the Equestria? Being able to levitate both sun and moon. Hah! It'll be powerful enough match the Master Emerald." Eggman then went to an intercom, "Mod. I need you and Mephiles here." He also signals Cubot and Orbot in their comlink to return.

Mod was trying to meet up with Mephiles, a Shadow clone secretly bio-engineered by GUN originally designed to take down Sonic if he had gone rogue. He was informed by Eggman's computer logs how his GUN experiment is in a different room handling the wild animals of this foreign planet. As he enters, he could see the manticore he saw earlier when meeting with the ponies, and many creatures thought to be myths to humans. He discovers Mephiles standing in front of a cage from a distance.

"Yo Meph!" the man in white called out to his experiment-turned assistant. He didn't receive a response. "You there?" the human scientist closes in on Mephiles. Upon closer inspection, he could that his Shadow look-alike assistant is in stone. "Huh, petrification." He observed his findings. "Supposedly a Medusa in mythology does that." He looks in front of the petrified hedgehog on the caged animal of what appears to be a chicken for a head and a body of a snake; a cockatrice. The said creature began to stare at the pale human with its red eyes.

"What the!" Mod could feel his feet are not reacting to his senses. "Even my clothes?!" seeing from his shoes to pants are slowly turning to stone with the rest of his body being next. He pulls out a Desert Eagle handgun from his lab coat and point it at the Medusa-like creature. "Stop with the stoning, right now!" He demanded.

The cockatrice isn't intimidated, for it has never seen a gun in its life in Equestria. Mod fires two rounds of ammunition before his hands got petrified and onto his neck. He missed those two shots passing the cage, but the deafening noises from his handgun is enough to cause the cockatrice to lose focus and panic. From there, the stoning process has reverted, so is Mephiles cured from being petrified.

"Mephiles," Mod said to him while calming himself. "You alright?"

"What happened?" The genetic copy of Shadow was confused, looking around himself. "All I could remember is taming a bunch of animals until I saw a chicken with a snake body."

"That would be the cockatrice." The former GUN scientist pointed to the creature. "It seems to have the ability to petrify by gaze, turning others to stone like the Medusa in legends. But I want to experiment…could you try looking at its eyes again?"

Mephiles is hesitant, but he does what he's been told. The cockatrice regain posture and began staring at him. The stoning began from Mephiles' feet. Mod then fired another gunshot at the cockatrice. This time grazing it. As it felt closer to death, it covered itself shivering in fear while letting Mephiles go of being petrified.

"Hmm."

"What exactly are you planning?" Mephiles asked his former GUN scientist creator.

"I'm testing it. Seeing that its petrification not only affects organics, but clothes as well. But what happens when if it tries to stone a non-organic, such as a robot?" Mod calls in a nearby Egg Pawn and order it to stare at the cockatrice. It did just that, and the creature does its part to react in self-defense. So far nothing has happened to the Egg Pawn. "I see…" Mod concluded his scientific findings of testing the cockatrice's ability. "It can only affect organic life, including their clothes but not of a machine. Interesting…"

"Mod?" Mephiles asked his creator.

"I will inform this to the Doctor. In the meantime, we have to meetup with him."

"But what about the animals?"

"I believe these Egg Pawns should suffice." The GUN turncoat orders the robots armed with taser staves as he and Mephiles move back to the Captain's room for Eggman. Along the way, they met up with the robotic duo of Cubot and Orbot. Both of whom were glaring at Mod for his past abuses, which the human scientist paid little attention to their staring. They all saw Metal Sonic in meeting up with the Doctor, whom Mephiles and Mod were given introductions to after providing info on the cockatrice and the potential resistance against magic from robots.

"Gentlemen," Eggman let out a speech for all sentient beings present within his vicinity. "As you all know, we are in the world of Equestria, moving away from the likes of Sonic and his friends. From there, we are to build up firepower and develop our schemes against our enemies. But in order to focus our attentions to Earth, we must establish a strong base of operations. To do so, we must take over this world, and establish the Eggman Empire of Equestria."

"Huh?!" cried out Cubot.

"Oh, where do we start?" Orbot said after his companion's shock. Both Mod and Mephiles were silent, eager to hear more of Eggman's speech.

"We already have begun. The natives get the impression that we are a private company of Eggman Enterprises seeking to learn more of this world. They were willing to share their knowledge with us." Eggman noted of Mephiles' past mission of obtaining books from the Ponyville library. "I have send in surveillance robots across Equestria." Eggman shows computer monitors from his bee-shaped camera bots in distant parts. "To add bonus, I have given Gamma to the ponies, all while acting as a spy for me." He shows clips of Gamma being in the presence of the six colorful horses.

"He is acting for you?" Mephiles asked.

"For the moment, no." Eggman verifies. "I had lent him to the ponies as compensation. He is not officially working for me, but he'll come around."

"Back to the Egg Carrier?" asked Cubot.

"No, to our new base of operations, the Egg Castle." The egg-shaped scientist pointed to the Ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters remodeled into his design.

"What about our forces back on Earth?" Orbot stepped forward.

"They will be our backup reinforcements."

"We will be using Chaos Emeralds to bring them along? I thought we only needed one."

"We only need one," Eggman reminded. He moved onto the topic of using Chaos Gems, raw gemstones excavated in Equestria synergized with Chaos Energy from the original Emerald. "With your method, Mod, we'll not only bring in more robots, we'll also upgrade our models to the best of their conditions." The GUN turncoat had nodded of his contributions to the Eggman Empire. "All the while, we have discovered new energies of magic from these ponies."

"I know unicorns have magic," Mod said from first-hand experience. "But so do these pegasi and... regular horses?" He look closely on the recently acquired equine.

"Yes, they all do. The most powerful of which are alicorns," the doctor explain their concepts of magic and the ruling authorities of Equestria, who can lift the sun and moon and live over thousand years. "They are our primarily targets, but I have a plan; a master plan, to take them and have this world under my control." Eggman formulates his strategy, giving everyone roles, including the yet produced robots, on his grand strategy of conquering Equestria. After everything was set in motion and everyone knows their objectives, Mod went to his room in the Egg Carrier for a debriefing with an unknown.

"It looks like we'll be here for a while." The former GUN scientist said in secret to the entity. He can sense the being's impatience, "Relax, we'll get back to Earth. At the same time, we'll have to deal with this intruder of yours."

"She will not return," said the mysterious voice. "I have made it so...but she knows of my presence..."

"She may be a liability to our plans, but I have a suggestion," the former GUN scientist conspired for the days yet to come.

* * *

 **I am the Eggman, it's what I am.**  
 **I am the Eggman, I got the master master plan**  
 **I am the Eggman**

 **Yep, there you have it, folks. The plan to take over Equestria and built the Eggman Empire in its place.**

 **When I started the _EEE_ in 2013, Bon Bon wasn't secret agent, Sweetie Drops, until 2015 in the _Slice of Life_ episode. Berry Punch is the town drunk as usual. Either high on sugar from grape juice or secretly wine in disguise.**

 **One purpose of this Sonic MLP crossover fanfic is to bring back all the old enemies of Sonic, including the Metal Knuckles and the Tails Doll from _Sonic R._ The Tails Doll in the Archie comics was some kind of Lovecraftian monster. In Sonic R and later mentions, he's just a floating robot with creepy design. In my headcanon, he has the creepypasta stare if his victims look at his eyes for more than a few seconds.**

 **Three years since I made the _EEE_ at 2013 in dA, Eggman finally decides to act on the fanfic title.**

 **I still will not say who that 'unknown being' is. Even I don't know who or what that is.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and Sonic Team. Created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and DHX media. Created by Lauren Faust for television.**


	14. Chapter 13: Enter the Eggman Elite

**It's been about six months for more since I posted the last chapter. I apologize for the delay due to real-life struggles, particularly finding employment and balancing my diet and gaming. No luck on job finding so far, or affording decent food outside of parental support. Gaming procrastination is currently under manageable control.**

 **EDIT as of May 21, 2017: fixed a few grammar errors. I'm in my mid-twenties and I still make grammar mistakes since grade school, apparently...**

* * *

Enter the Eggman Elite

Gamma, with the guidance of the Mane Six and their dragon Spike, has much learned much from traveling through different parts of Equestria. He has been to three places. The Crystal Empire to meet Princess Cadence and her husband in Shining Armor, Twilight's brother. Canterlot to gain the honorary audience with the Pony Sisters of Princesss Celestia and Princess Luna, and down south of Ponyville to Appleoosa. His souvenirs are a halberd he got from visiting the guards of the royal palace and bushels of apples from Applejack's cousin, Braeburn. Though Gamma can't really eat them, he gave the apples to the Mane Six and Spike. It was a three-days trip altogether before they came back home in Ponyville on the fourth day.

At the same time, Doctor Eggman has been looking through Gamma's visual to pinpoint strategic locations. He sent his bee-sized spies in these regions and planted cameras, along with those un-visited in parts of Equestria. Meanwhile, his advanced robots conduct special operations for his grand scheme.

"I am worried." Princess Luna said to herself sometime after a day of Gamma's visit. "I'm not sure what to make of these humans." She and Celestia had heard stories of their capabilities, but questions of their morality are answered ambiguous at best. "Starswirl the Bearded said that majority of the humans are generally in the middle; neither good nor evil. Each individual human is different, but they are a few exceptions." Humans can be a good friend to all; or beings of pure evil. If they fall to the latter, Tartarus and death would be too good of a punishment for them. Their alignment, from the humans she saw in her secret mission, is also dubious. Normally she would astrally go back to the airship and spy on them again to confirm her search.

"But I haven't been able to gain access to the ethereal realm," Luna mentally said. She tries to ethereally travel to the Everfree time and again, only to be blocked by a mysterious power. It has grown a supernatural barrier around airship, and it's slowly growing by the minutes of each passing day to encompass the Everfree.

"What was the being aboard their metal fortress? Is it a human? No, it can't be." Humans naturally don't use magic. This is confirmed as the ones aboard the stationed airship favor science instead. "Is it the being, Mephiles?" She remembers the black creature with no mouth, but he was present with the scientists the last time she checked. The unknown must be something else entirely, but is it working for the humans, or is it the other way around?

Luna didn't bring up the unknown being to her sister, not just out of pride from admitting defeat to another being in the astral realm. She didn't want to take action too soon against the humans, despite having an enigmatic aura. According to Twilight's report and based on what she saw on the scientists, they only wished to study this world.

But then from her gaze outside the Everfree, the Princess of the Moon has spotted a few machined beings, called robots by the humans, interacting with ponies traveling the road and in the air. She was pushed away by the mysterious force before she can see what happens. Luna sent guards to investigate those areas, only to find the ponies missing. Some ponies had carriages, and they too are missing, saved for their wrecked transportation and their former belongings in tact. Now she feels powerless, unable to travel astrally or enter the dreams of ponies. She counsels her sister regarding the guards' investigations and the matter of security for traveling ponies.

* * *

It is the fourth day in the morning after Gamma decided to travel to Equestria with the Mane Six and Spike. They returned to Ponyville by train.

"Wait, what's going on?" The Mane Six and Spike were shocked upon arriving home. Gamma had remained quiet. They have spotted an extensive number of guards in Ponyville. A sign that it is under curfew.

"What's going on here? Why are there so many guards?" Twilight, as a student of Princess Celestia, asks the question to a nearby sentry at the train station.

"Ma'am," answered the guard, who recognizes Twilight. "We have reports of ponies traveling out on the roads and in the air disappearing. The Princesses have ordered extra patrol to keep our cities safe."

"This has been going on everywhere?" Rainbow Dash pops in. They didn't see any extra guard patrol in their of trip of Gamma's tour.

"So far, we're starting with Ponyville. The rest of Equestria should receive the extra protection. For now, we've asked civilians to stay in the their towns and cities for their safety." The guard concluded. "It is strange that ponies traveling by train are left unharmed for the past three days." He lastly noted.

"Three days?" The six ponies and a dragon were wondering. That's the same amount of days when they assisted Gamma's tour of Equestria. They didn't see extra guard patrols in their travel of Canterlot and the Crystal Empire, though it's understandable there's already plenty to protect royalty. But they didn't see any when in Appleloosa, even though the ponies there can protect themselves with bison by their side.

The Mane Six and Spike went into town to see more guards in the streets and in the sky. The marketplace remains open for those who needed food and supplies, despite the inconvenience with merchants prohibited from leaving. Arguments can be heard between the merchants, guards, and customers who needed supplies. There's also complaints by Ponyville residents on how their friends, families, and neighbors have gone missing. Normally, the Mane Six would try to make an effort to calm the atmosphere, but a monotonous voice spoke behind them.

"Carbon emissions levels detected in the vicinity," said Gamma rotating his head to scan the air. The Mane Six and spike were confused. Twilight slightly understands the 'carbon' part, but needed Gamma to verify. "Carbon dioxide levels in the air have increased. This occurs from burning fuel," according to his scans.

"Fuel, like coal or firewood to the fire?" Spike asked.

"That is correct, however, the emissions in the air are foot-printed in kerosene." Gamma said to the oblivious ponies and dragon. To clarify, Twilight and Gamma exchange knowledge on the resources used in Equestria compared to the ones on Earth, with humans commonly using oil for air travel. A substance either undiscovered or uncommonly used in Equestria.

"They use oil?" Applejack asked, thinking of vegetable oil for frying pans.

"Humans use fossil fuels from underground and the ocean." Gamma corrected.

"Underground? Not unlike mining?" Rarity asked, who frequently excavates jewelry.

"Affirmative, but from deceased animals." Gamma continued.

"Animals?!" Cried Fluttershy

"Animals deceased over long periods of time. From hundreds to millions of years underground." Gamma reassured.

"But our vehicles don't use, kara-scene?" Rainbow Dash tries to pronounce. Non-pegasus ponies use hot air balloons, airships, and helicopters for air travel; and they don't have whatever humans use as fuel. "If you're saying that humans are the only ones using that kind of fuel for air travel," Rainbow Dash wondered.

"But the only humans," Pinkie continued. "We saw are Doctor Eggman and the Mod guy."

"Correct. But further scans indicate recent activity after Eggman's arrival in Equestria with the Egg Carrier." Gamma stated further.

"So you're saying," Pinkie raises her voice. "Then Eggman must be behind these disa-"

"Shh! We can't know for sure." Twilight said while magically shutting Pinkie's mouth. They wouldn't want to cause a riot in town. Thankfully, the grieving ponies around them are too busy arguing with the guards.

"It is a possibility." Gamma confirmed. "Eggman's robots and vehicles can be powered by kerosene if they need a rocket boost."

"Guess that means we'll have to pay a visit to the Egghead." Rainbow Dash pounding her hoofs, wanting to pick a fight with him.

"We will talk things over with him if he is indeed behind it all." Twilight said. "But for now, we need to get ready. Head back home and get what you need. And once we get clearance from the guards, we'll get to the bottom of this in the Everfree." The Mane Six split up to their designated homes, with Spike coming along side Twilight's. Fluttershy asked Gamma to come along with her.

Rainbow Dash was going to fly up to her home in the Cloudominium, but she spotted something black armored in the clouds. She fly towards it. It wasn't a guard, but something else more akin to their robot friend.

"Gamma, you can fly?" In their past trips, Gamma shown that he can jump and hover, but not fly up. "Hmm...you sure look like him." She said to the flying armored being with big claws. She notices the 101 on his exterior and remembering the 102 on Gamma. "Are you in anyway related to Gamma?" She asked but got no answer. "So Eggman is behind these disappearances, isn't he?!" She said with a more abrasive attitude, but no response. She decides to stick her tongue in its face. Inflate her checks. Make silly faces for a reaction but got none. "Say something already!" Rainbow Dash yelled, and finally she got an answer.

"Target confirmed."

* * *

Applejack went to her home to see if everything's okay. When she got there, she hears barking.

"Winona?" Applejack dashed to where her dog would be at around their barn. She spotted Granny Smith, her brother Big Mac, and her little sister Apple Bloom staring at something around their apple trees. "What the hay is going on out there?" Applejack asked her family. She spotted a figure that the family were staring and their dog, Winona, barking at. A being in armored blue, dreadlocked-like hair, red eyes, yellow muzzle, yellow gloves, and standing on two legs. The height seems to the same as reaching Applejack's head.

"Well, that's just it," Granny Smith said. "We were all minding our own business when suddenly Winona starting barking."

"Eeyup." Big Mac nodded.

"We're not sure how he got there," Apple Bloom. "But so far, he's just standing around."

The blue being spots the one with a hat, identified as 'Applejack' from its information data. He pounded his yellow gloved knuckles together before grabbing onto an apple tree and launching it at the family.

"Lookout!" cried Applejack.

* * *

Pinkie Pie was hopping out to her home and workplace in the Sugarcube Corner. Thinking that they're going to meet up and talk to Eggman, she felt that she needed to bring in refreshment for the occasion. She forgot to bring them in the past when they met Eggman.

"That's not true!" Pinkie yells at _...me, the one writing?_

"I was going to give Eggman some sweets, but you didn't mention me or give me any lines!" Pinkie cried.

 _"Well...I...forgot...yeah..."_

"What?!" Pinkie cried.

 _"Hey, at least you gave him something offscreen, right?"_

"Yeah."

 _"Then it shouldn't be a problem. Move along!"_

Pinkie was going to the her house when see spotted a similar vehicle that Eggman rode above town. "Hey, he's here already?" Pinkie hops around buildings until she can see him in close range from a rooftop. "Hey, you're not Eggman." The vehicle is the same as what Eggman rode, but it has a different driver. This one is metallic with red eyes more egg-shaped.

"Hey." Pinkie jumps to him, or it, for everything word. "Are. You. ByanychanceworkingwithEggman?"

The being didn't say anything. It did bring up a round object from the vehicle and drops it in front of the marketplace. Pinkie initially thought this was a party ball, but her Pinkie senses are tingling of imminent danger.

* * *

"Mmhmm." Rarity had already got into her Carousel Boutique. "Last time I gave him a silver silk. I should probably give him something for our talks, and hopefully not get physical as Rainbow Dash is implying." Rarity doesn't want things to be violent, so she comes up with a fashionable gift instead. "Maybe I should give something dashing, but wait!" She remembers. "He's walking on two legs! Oh dear, it'll be hard work to adjust." She is not used to making dresses for bipeds, save for Spike. "Maybe they have their own fashion designer...

"Rarity!" Her sister, Sweetie Belle yelled.

"Just a minute." Rarity dismisses her while still thinking about which fabric she should give, until her cat, Opal, screeched. "Oh I know, you two are bored and all but..." She notices her wall of the Carousel Boutique was knocked down and a silver-back being with spikes on the head is robbing from her treasure chest of precious gems.

* * *

"So Twilight?" Spike asked. "What do we need back home?"

"I'm going to need to take notes. Hopefully we'll talks things out first and not get reckless with whatever Rainbow Dash is thinking."

"But won't he be hostile? I mean, he is the one behind the disappearances."

"Maybe, maybe not. Whatever is it, I'm hoping we can discuss this without a fight."

"I am afraid it will not be possible," said a familiar being in front of their library.

"Mephiles, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked inquisitively.

"Nothing personal." He disappears.

"He can teleport?" Said the surprised Spike. They both look around for Mephiles, but then... "Twilight!" Spike cried from being thrown in the air.

"Spike!" The lavender unicorn tries to levitate her dragon to him land easily, but she got a beat down. Struck from every direction until Spike landed a drop on her.

"Ow..."they both groaned.

"Just doing my part of the job." Mephiles reappears in front of them.

* * *

Fluttershy gallops quickly to her cottage. So much so that Gamma needed to be in wheel mode to catch up to her.

"May I inquire why are we accelerating?" Gamma asked while traveling along side her.

"I need to check up on Angel Bunny and all my other animals." Fluttershy answered. "I had given them all the food they need for about three days." When they got to their destination, cottage is ransacked.

"Angel!" Fluttershy shouted as she closes in to the cottage entry. Her house is a mess, with no animal seen. "Everyone?!" She dashed in every animal shelter, but no one.

"Two unknown entities detected." Gamma detected in his scanners. One tall and the other short approaches from the outside.

"Ba-ha! Ha-ha!" The tall one makes a distinctive laugh. "We sure did a number on the place."

"Yeah, in our last visit." the short one said.

"We were to ordered to meet up with a Gamma here, so which one is that?" the tall one had to ask.

* * *

 **I cut through of Gamma's tour in a timeskip. I didn't really want to write chapters of Gamma's tour because it's boring, so I just go on ahead and get to point of conflict.**

 **On Pinkie. If you know me long enough in deviantART, you pretty much already get the vibe that I don't like her much. In fact, she's my least favorite of the Mane Six.**

 **The struggle of making this chapter is I had to google a few bits on carbon emissions and burning fuel, or the difference between oil and kerosene. I suck at science, so I'm only picking what I've google and briefed them here.**

 **Whatever Eggman is planning, this is not a time for diplomacy.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and created by Mr. Yuji Naka.**  
 **My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and created by Lauren Faust.**


	15. Chapter 14: Mechanical Chaser

**Yet another somewhat six months for an update. Why? Because gaming addiction got me again, crying to myself over unemployment and depressive mood swings, and** **another settlement needs my help.**

 **I was originally going to name the title, "Crazy Robo," after E-101 Beta MKii's theme, but I couldn't pass up the slightly abridged name after an old Yu-Gi-Oh! monster, Mechanicalchaser. Which fits perfectly for Beta.**

 **UPDATE as of December 5, 2017: I had my cousin, who is slightly familiar with Sonic but not so much on MLP, to proofread for grammar errors. Following his guidelines, the chapter has been corrected.**

* * *

 _Mechanical Chaser_

"Wait, what!" Rainbow Dash cried in shock from hearing a monotonous voice in the 101 flying robot, shaped and sounding similar to Gamma, after taunting it afloat in Cloudsdale. Once it finally spoke, it swipes a backhand claw in Rainbow Dash's face. "Hey, what was that fo-," he charges towards her with a headbutt. Luckily, she managed to evade the attack and flew away to announce to her opponent.

"You want to do this the hard way!" She pounds her hooves and flies towards her foe. "We'll do this the hard..." She was cut shortly when she tries to launch a forehoof punch, only to hit a ghostly apparition. "Way?" She looks around left to right, only to be struck from behind by its slashes. The attack sends her flying towards a cloud.

"Pathetic." E-101 Beta mkii robotically snide. He had used an afterimage to confuse the rainbow-maned foe and attack from behind. Something a speedy hedgehog would normally have seen coming.

"Ugh, you're fast. But I'm faster!" Rainbow Dash boosted from a cloud to catch up to the machine, only see it instantaneously moved aside with copies of afterimages. "What the hay?!" She does a series of moving in close to her target, but he reacts quickly every time. "Will you hold still?!" Rainbow complained before she gets hit face front with another backhand swipe.

"Ow..." Rainbow Dash brushes off her injuries and decides to see what her opponent is up to. After seeing through his illusionary speed, she is seeing a pattern. He only counters if he is attacked. But if he were to the one to land a blow. Rainbow Dash holds position and taunts him by sticking out her tongue.

The robot becomes impatient and flies quickly towards her. Rainbow Dash manages to wrap her hooves around his head, does a stomp with her forehooves, and bucked him back with her hindlegs.

"Ow..." Rainbow felt bruised from hitting an armor harder than steel. She bluffs to hide her inflicted pain, "Hah! In your face!" E-101 is slightly short-circuited by the damage but he repairs himself. The flying robot then disappears.

"You can teleport?!" Surprised to see how the black automaton can do something akin to unicorn magic. She looks back to see if he strikes from behind again. Instead, she spots him far above her in the sky. The sunlight blocking her vision. "Dang it," realizing his cheap tactics, she uses a nearby cloud to act as her shades. "I'm ready with whatever you throw at me!" She shouted.

At a distance, she could see projectiles coming out of the robot and closing on her. She dodges the missiles. "That all you got?!" She yelled. Later, she hears hissing from around her. Looking back to where the missiles missed, the projectile took a U-turn and are homing in on her. "Woah!" She dodges them one-by-one until they exploded away from her. "Cheap trick." She spots another volley, gets into position, and used her wings to create mini-whirlwinds to counter the exploding missiles. "How do you like that?!" She bragged. Rainbow Dash hides into one cloud, forcing the mechanical being to descend and close in. He found himself stuffed inside the cloud.

"Does not commute." E-101 is slowed by the cloud's tangibility. He and Eggman had some foreknowledge on how clouds work differently in Equestria, but not by further experience; especially when they are amplified by weather magic of a pegasus. Rainbow Dash quickly flies out of the cloud and bucks it back to electrically shock the trapped robot. The automaton swung out with his claws to clear his area vicinity.

"You're not the only one who likes to cheat." Rainbow Dash grabs one cloud and stomps it to shoot lightning at her opponent. To her surprise, the robot protected himself with a barrier. "Jeez, it's like I'm fighting Twilight here."

Both her and the machine charge and collide against each other back and forth. Rainbow Dash using her speed to bash while E-101 has his. Neither side is inflicting damaged, but Rainbow Dash is harmed whenever the robot counters with a barrier. They both clashed together to a deadlock with neither of them holding back.

"Waste of flesh." E-101 Beta said while sounding like Gamma.

"That's supposed to be your insult?!" Rainbow Dash retorted back. He then ejected backwards, slightly confusing Rainbow, stick out one of its claws and fires a laser.

"Almost like Twilight would've done." Rainbow Dash predicted and dodged the attack. "Ha! You missed!" She mocked her opponent before feeling an tremor in the air behind her. "What the-!" She looked back to witness its explosive power of the laser fire. "Woah..." Luckily no Pegasus or pony were close to the area, but nearby Cloudsdale house residence were caught on fire with close-by pegasi trying to put it down. "Hey! You better watch where you firing that thing!" She shouted at the robot.

Noticing the organic's response, E-101 Beta takes this as an advantage. He rapidly spins his body with his arms extended and fires his lasers everywhere in his.

Rainbow Dash takes it to heart as an Element of Loyalty to rescue all ponies, not just ones putting out the fires but also anyone close to the exploding area-of-effect. Many times, she was caught in the crossfire, suffering the burns for every rescued civilian.

""You're attacking everypony! What gave you the right to strike Cloudsdale in the first place!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"Pitiful." The metal being bearing a 101 label declared. "Compassion for non-ruling organics is a weakness for the vulnerable. A liability to be discarded."

"I can't let you get away with this!" Rainbow Dash declared while ignoring her opponent's unusual speech patterns. "I'll have to take this up a notch." She jet-speeds up in higher altitudes with no ponies or cloud buildings around but with sufficient oxygen. The robot chases and fires his exploding lasers at her. "That's right." She said while luring her opponent and dodging his attacks. "Time to end this!" She boosted far away from her chaser faster than the speed of sound.

"Scanning. Target at sonic speed. Initiating defensive protocols." E-101 Beta stated. It spotted a rainbow ring exploded from miles distance with the rainbow pony charging towards him at Mach-10 in a Sonic-Rainboom. "Activating barrier." The robot dared to challenge what it was originally programmed for, for his opponent matches a speeding hedgehog. The rainbow being collides with Beta's barrier, pushing him down and far away from Cloudsdale.

"Charging shield..." E-101 Beta statically said while holding back his hardest against the Sonic-Rainboom. "At maximum..."

Rainbow Dash used all her might to push the shielded robot until they're above the Everfree Forest. Even with her explosive signature move, the automaton manages to hold its position while Rainbow Dash takes a breather from the Sonic-Rainboom and the previous beatings.

"Systems...nominal." E-101 does a scan to his CPU with a few electrical delays. " Battery level...at 25%...Had I not been...powered by a Chaos Gem...I surely would have...perished..." Rainbow Dash didn't pay attention to his self-analyses while taking a breather. That is until she hears a familiar voice.

"You have done well, Beta." She could her the human doctor's voice like a radio speaker coming out of the robot. "Now return to base."

"Acknowledged." Beta turns around and flies at sonic speed over the Everfree Forest.

"Hey! "Rainbow Dash shouted while exhaustively panting. "Get back here!" She chases him somewhere where the Castle of the Pony Sisters would normally reside. Only to find it vastly different from before.

"This is just like fighting Sonic," Eggman said in front of the monitor showing Beta's visual. "Only with wings and without a Super Form. Not to mention the ability to shoot lightning." He had seen his nemesis using the wind from super-speed, but not so much on electricity. "I wonder how my other minions are doing..."

* * *

 **Ugh...these fight scenes are a pain. I thought it'll be easy like playing a fighting game. Turns out, it's a different challenge to write them out. The past fights were essentially curbstomps with the robots triumphing over minor mlp characters. Going against main characters, it's back-and-forth back-and-forth. "Am I doing this right?" I would say to myself. I don't read much books with action scenes, but when I do, it gets confusing. "Nah, I'll just get this over with."**

 **Hopefully the fight scenes are more simpler for the other Mane fights, and therefore shorter and easier for me to post.**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and Sonic Team. Created by Mr. Yuji Naka.  
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and DHX Media. Created by Lauren Faust.**


	16. Chapter 15: Mechanized Melee

**You can thank 4kids and some children's card game yet again for the title.**

* * *

 _Mechanized Melee_

"Lookout!" Applejack cried out to her family when the mysterious, blue-armored being grabbed one of the apple trees and hurled it at them. She readies a lasso with her tail, but it wasn't enough to catch it in time. Thankfully, her brother, Big Macintosh, is there to protect the Apple Family. He caught the launched apple tree with his forehooves.

"Nope!" Big Mac gave out a steamed snort after setting their family tree aside on the ground. He readies his hooves on the ground for a fighting stance.

The armored being, called Mecha Knuckles by Eggman to distinguish him from the racing unit in Metal Knuckles, pounds his fists together in a taunt. He grabs another apple tree with his yellow gloves and launches it again.

"That's private property yer whippersnapper!" Granny Smith yells at the dredlocked being when Big Mac caught their second.

"What gave you the right to attack using our pride and joy?!" Apple Bloom shouted at the stranger.

Mecha Knuckles ignores the yelling. Instead, he does a Spin Jump, curling into a ball shape in the air, and glides towards Big Mac. He lands a hard fist to the ground in front of the Earth Pony, creating minor shockwaves to disorient the stallion's balance. The combat unit dashes towards Big Mac, giving him several jabs to the face until grabbing and judo-flipping him to the ground.

Big Mac quickly recovers consciousness from the ground and sees his opponent raising a fist. He bucked his enemy further away from him before the opponent could strike.

"No!" Big Mac snorts a steam, standing back into defensive position and regaining his composure.

His opponent, within distanced length, continuously bashed his fists on the ground, creating cracks. The blue armor grasps into bits of rubble and hurls a barrage of rocks against Big Mac. The stallion covered his face with his forehooves from the pebbles, and fairly notices a stop in the barrage. He sees his enemy carrying a larger piece of rubble, twice its size and about one quarter larger than Big Mac, and throws it at the stallion. It was a bit harder than catching thrown trees, but a large size boulder is not something Big Mac for all his strength couldn't handle. Upon getting a hold of the giant rock, he is being pushed back by an explosive shock. His mechanical opponent had dashed towards him while Big Mac was still holding onto the bounder, and shatter the rock with his bare hands.

Big Mac, steadfast and calm from the sudden surprise, stood his ground, raise his forehooves, and collides with his opponents charging towards him with punches. This creates a shockwave between the two power busters with a force in the wind felt by bystanders.

The two combatants wrestle each other in a deadlock with neither side holding an advantage. Big Mac is certainly strong and Mecha Knuckles is modeled after a anthropomorphic echidna whose strength is his specialty. The weakness of a mechanical echidna is the lack of grit and willpower from the organic counterpart. Big Mac is slowly gaining an advantage with his forehooves, pushing his opponent down close to his knees. The blue echidna robot then opens his mouth. From Big Mac's perspective, he is seeing something red and metallic. Unbeknownst to him, it is a missile; and it fired off point-blank and exploded into his face.

"Big Mac!" The Apple Family called out to him, who is screaming in pain from the explosion. Everypony in the vicinity could see the red eyes glaring through smoke. When the smoke cleared, they could see the blue armored being standing in front of their incapacitated family member.

"Stay away from him!" Granny Smith throws all their farming equipment and kitchenware at the invader. Apple Bloom joins in the assault. The invader didn't bulge, but Winona the family dog charged in and bites his leg. None of the attacks fazed the mechanical echidna, though he had to shove the dog aside. The combat robot opens his mouth and launches a missile at Granny Smith. Apple Bloom saw this, and quickly manages to get both her and her grandmother running to safety. They evaded the attack, but they were shocked when the missile hits the barn previously behind them and decimated the whole place. Mecha Knuckles marked his target once more and fires another projectile from his mouth.

"Oh no you don't!" Applejack cried out, having enough of watching her family suffering long enough. She had her lasso to catch the missile in time, but it is not an easy task. She held her own controlling the trajectory and velocity of the missile until she manages to slam it onto faraway ground. The invader launches another missile and Applejack catches it also. Once she has gotten the hang of it, she channeled her rope to hurl the missile back at the shooter and explodes upon impact. In the midst of the explosion, she hastily grabs her brother for Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to care for the wounds while she goes off to fight.

"I don't know who you are, but I can't have you hurting my family like that!" Applejack yells at the home invader after the smoke cleared. Mecha Knuckles is damaged, showing his internal parts that was once covered in armor. Applejack didn't know what to make of him, but after remembering hints from Gamma, he is a robot.

The combat unit jumps into the air, curls into a ball, hits the grounds, and burrow underneath. Applejack, being an Earth Pony, can sense his movement underground, but he seems to be moving away from her. He pops out higher in mid-air and glides away.

"Hey, get back here!" Applejack shouted.

"Applejack!" Apple Bloom screams. The older sister had to put off hold of her pursuit and went back to her family. She sees her brother in bandages but not fully healed. "Big Mac is not responding!" Apple Bloom had waved her forehoof in front of Big Mac's eyes but with no eye movement. All she got was groans.

"We need to get him to the doctor." Granny Smith said. Applejack, feeling vindictive against the attacker, had to put her chase on hold. The family brought Big Mac onto a cart and they all traveled to Ponyville for the hospital, only see the town in a similar situation as their home.

"Impressive." Eggman watching through his recorded scans of the battle. "These Earth Ponies sure know how to stand their ground, despite not having any hands to defend themselves. Mecha Knuckles." He orders his mech. "Before you head back to base, I'll need to you to stand in position right over there." He pointed somewhere on the electronic map between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest.

* * *

 **I had this chapter done about a month ago. Why the delay are due to depressive mood swings (as usual), struggling to find a simple job, and trying to promote and gain support for the Sonic/MLP crossover in dA and facebook. The former is easy. The latter is a major pain in the ass with all the hostile comments of a social network, and the frequently polite yet redundantly frustrating 'no' for the crossover.  
**  
 **Mecha Knuckles is a boss from Sonic Advance, where he fights like regular Knuckles but with a missile launcher from the mouth. Originally, I was thinking about giving Applejack more screentime with more fight scenes. Then I thought about Big Mac, "wouldn't his injuries be worse if he's not in the hospital in time?" So I ended the fight with Applejack's lasso counter launching the missile back at Mecha Knuckles.**

 **Ponyville in a similar situation as the Sweet Apple Acres. That doesn't sound reassuring...**

 **Long Live the Eggman Empire**

 **Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and Sonic Team. Created by Mr. Yuji Naka.  
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and DHX Media. Created by Lauren Faust.**


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